Regional Conference on ‘Good Governance Initiatives’ ends
KOHIMA, OCTOBER 11 (MExN): The two-day Regional Conference on ‘Good Governance Initiatives’ with the sub-theme: ‘Capacity Building/Technology/Best practices by Aspirational Districts’ concluded at Hotel Vivor on October 11.
Addressing the participants at the valedictory session, Chief Secretary of Nagaland, R. Binchilo Thong, said that South East Asia begins from the North East states of India, as such the ethnic composition of the people of the North East region can make trade and commerce interface smoother.
He said that the proposed four lane highway between Dimapur and Kohima should be extended to cover the Kohima-Imphal link by 2022 and proposed that a rail link between Dimapur and Zubza should be further extended beyond to enable Nagaland to assimilate into the expected trade with Myanmar and the other ASEAN countries via road and rail.
The Chief Secretary also called for examination of the present land tenure system particularly in matters relating to the creation of appropriate and modern land record systems. This, according to him, will facilitate communitization of land and create appropriate environment for development to emerge in the right direction particularly investment flow into the state.
He meanwhile stated that connectivity issues, power, IT and Telecom, lack of capital formation, poor banking culture and poor investment environment are some factors affecting the state.
Further, Thong said that unemployment is a great challenge and called for efforts to “ensure that young people are educated and trained at par with their western peers so that they can compete on a global stage for jobs and initiate start-up and social enterprises.”
On banking and financial inclusion, he said the North East in general and Nagaland in particular has been unsatisfactory. The NE has been deficient in the use of banking capital due to low spread of banking capital due to low spread of banking service, he said.
Thong added that the poor resource position of the NE states would hamper the response to natural disasters. He also said that in Nagaland the successful implementation of Village Development Board (VDB) and communitisation Act needs to be done in terms of complete devolution of powers to these institutions at the grass root level.
Meanwhile, Additional Secretary Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, Vasudha Mishra urged all participants to introspect on the different aspects which they have learnt from the conference.
She expressed happiness that the states are also taking interest in the Aspirational district program, adding that “this is the golden period for the development of the districts.”
Mishra meanwhile called upon the DCs to form a team and deliberate on the problems and issues to be solved. The Government of India has tied up with all public sector undertakings to adopt some districts for which the DCs need to identify which districts have been adopted and in consultation with them, the plan of action has to be made, she informed.
Mishra said that the purpose of holding the conference will be achieved when all the participants ponder on the problems and analyses, to the extent that the causes are known, and also work for possible solutions.
