Moa Jamir
Recently, the Chief Minister of Nagaland, TR Zeliang disclosed that the State would come out with a ‘Vision Document’ within two or three months.
While India already has two exclusive policies for North East States – ‘the North East Vision 2020’ and ‘Act East Policy’ - there was no implementation on the ground, CM Zeliang reportedly apprised the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, thus justifying the necessity for an exclusive ‘Vision Document’ for speedy development of the State. A common business lexicon would describe a vision document as – aspirational description of what an organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term future, intended to serve as a clear guide for choosing current and future courses of action.
While a vision document is most welcome, the CM citing ‘non- implementation’ by way of justification is incongruous and one can accept the same with a caveat given the fact that outcome of various policies and schemes in the State are suffering due to faulty, or no, implementation at ground level.
For instance, look at the communitisation process heralded as the unique partnership between the State and the Community for efficient and effective delivery of services to the public. Spectacular in intent, the overall achievement –in health, education and power sectors- has been discouraging due to deficient implementation.
Likewise, while Nagaland was a pioneer in bringing out the State Human Development Report in 2004, including a chapter called ‘Nagaland 2020 – A Vision,’ almost all the objectives mentioned in the document remain unfulfilled. Incidentally, it was the first government of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland which released the Report.
While outlining various objectives, the report stated that peace was a prerequisite for development and reforms and restructuring process both in civil society and government will take place at a rapid pace once it is in place.
In hindsight, in the intervening years, the State has been relatively ‘peaceful,’ but the objectives such as formulation and implementation of a comprehensive agriculture and forest policy; promotion of industries based on agro-forestry; sustainable exploitation of oil, gas and mineral reserves; heavy investments in infrastructure development and connectivity through State Road Policy; improvement in power generation and distribution network; and exploring possibilities of social security net to ensure equitable access to quality education and health care services etc. remain only on papers.
Nonetheless, the CM asked the citizens of the State to undertake a ‘leap of faith’ claiming that “lot of developments are in the pipeline so people should have confidence in the Government and render full support.” As a ‘visionary,’ he said the State has made a lot of achievement in the last three years, which will become visible only in the next five years. Only the citizen must be blind to his vision. He promises maximum development like good roads, good communication and other infrastructure under “Vision 2020.”
Inspirational on paper, if things continue as usual on the ground, the vision would remain just another wasted opportunity. So far the present government has not instilled any confidence in the citizens to foresee change.
Way back in 1989, the former Chief Secretary of Nagaland Lalhuma, IAS (Rtd.) postulating the ‘The Nagaland of My Dreams’ asked, “Is it too much to dream of a return to time-honoured traditional and moral values, i.e. respect for authority, for elders? For dignity of labour? Raw honesty? Hard work? And sincerity?... A return to religion with depth and true conviction and not as a garb for social acceptance and respectability? To politics with principles and genuine concern for the well being and welfare of the people, and not for personal gain or self-aggrandisement? Combining leadership with responsibility? Well, it is for the citizens of Nagaland to provide the answer!” We are still asking the same questions with no solution in sight. Hope the new ‘Vision Document’ renders some answers.
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