Dimapur, August 15 (MExN): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Nagaland today wondered where funds from the electricity revenue – ‘one of the highest’ among States – ‘have been siphoned to’ and that the State continues to reel from the shortage of power. The BJP has accused the government of government of not having Political Will to improve the power sector of the State.
The BJP issued a press release today stating that power infrastructure and facilities in Nagaland have barely seen any improvement even in the face of ‘drastic population increase and increased use of modern electrical appliances.’
The State’s BJP unit appreciated the ‘immense contribution’ of ‘Association of Power Engineers Nagaland’ (APEN), for working tirelessly to serve the State in spite of shortage of manpower and machines.
“The party feels that the present Government has no political will to improve the power sector. The Power department in the State is one of highest earning revenue department but where are the funds siphoned? When compared with other NE states in the power sector, Nagaland is rated far behind,” BJP general secretary K James Vizo stated in the press release. Unless the government changes its ‘insensitive and complacent attitude and comes out with a clear vision, we cannot expect any better results’ the BJP said. “Accountability and transparency of the Government is a must. It is heartening to know in several occasions in the past, the expert technocrats foreseeing the huge power requirement has advised the Government to procure more power for the state but the Government turned down the proposals with deaf ears to their pleas.
The BJP also expressed dismay that 350 villages are supplied with power “but hardly a single field staff to maintain the transformer and the distribution system.” The party has demanded sufficient field workers to monitor and carry out the works. :The BJP Unit would also categorically like to state that huge numbers of vehicles are purchased by officials and VVIPS, whereas it is sad to know that there are not sufficient vehicles to transport the Transformers from one place to another,” the BJP remarked.
