EMN
DIMAPUR, JANUARY 2
Nagaland Governor P B Acharya said the year 2016 will be a challenging and crucial year for Nagaland. “Permanent peace is at our doorstep,” Acharya stated while adding, “Unless civil society and underground faction unite and have a graceful dialogue – keeping in mind our special identity enshrined into the framework peace agreement signed with the NSCN/IM on August 3, 2015 by the Central Government under the dynamic leadership of Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, who has the will to solve our problems and who cares for the North East in general and Nagaland in particular.”
The Governor said this while extending his ‘warmest greetings to all my brothers and sisters, on the occasion of New Year 2016’. The Governor said that New Year brings to ‘us a fresh hope, for a better future and success. On this New Year, our resolution must be to face our challenges with courage and confidence, to spread love and affection to not only our near and dear ones, but to all.’
“We have got required skilled man power to strengthen our society and State – like empowered doctors, nurses, engineers, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs, social workers, NGOs apart from excellent artists, performers, weavers, craftsmen etc. Many of our young empowered youths have gone outside Nagaland,” the message of the Governor said while adding, “They have to come back and take care of our society and strengthen the society for a healthy, developed and prosperous Nagaland. We have God given natural resources like mineral, coal, hydro-power, solar energy etc.”
PB Acharya then expressed happiness that Nagaland has plenty of organic food and “our kissans are working hard to fill our granaries”. He then called to pray that the New Year give them remunerative price for their produce and usher prosperity,.
“We have to have a dialogue with our industries, commerce and trade system and our University degrees have to have additional skills, which is mandatory by the UGC,” the Governor also said.
According to him, this is an opportunity, which cannot be missed. It would be suicidal if we fail to achieve the goal of unity and peace towards achieving permanent peace. “We have to make golden Nagaland. Nagaland has all the potentialities. Gone are the days when we were depending upon Delhi for our development. We will be equal to any other State of mainland, marching shoulder to shoulder towards making India a strong and prosperous nation. We are second to none,” the Governor’s message added.
The Governor also called upon the people to pray to God to give “us strength to march with jet-speed” to achieve this. “We have to prove that 2016 will be the beginning of the golden era of Nagaland. Let us also work in unity for empowering of women in all spheres, so that there can be development in true sense, women in Nagaland work alongside men on equal footing and it is desirable that equal status is accorded to them in all spheres, especially in political representation,” the message added.
Chief Minister TR Zeliang has appealed the ‘Naga political groups’ to come together and work collectively for permanent peace in ‘our land.’
The Chief Minister said this while wishing to the people the people “for a New Year, 2016, filled with hope and the blessings of the Almighty God, who has been merciful and guided us through the past year.”
He said that as peace loving people, “we should continue to maintain peace and tranquillity among us and with our neighbours. Let us be reminded once again that peace is essential for our state to progress and be at par with the rest of the world.”
He also also called upon various NGOs, tribal Hohos, organisations and common people to contribute in maintaining peace in the state and also continue to work towards bringing the NPGs together.
“My government being people’s government, we commit ourselves to economic empowerment of the poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized including our women and youth, improving education and health system, ensuring better communications and development of the state with transparency and accountability,” the message said.
Transparency does not mean in government transactions alone but in every field. In encourage all government employees, various organisations, churches and people of the State to maintain transparency and be accountable, the message added.
The people of Nagaland should also change their mindset and be prepared to contribute for the government to work for their welfare.
The citizens should not shy away from paying what is due to the government so that development activities are not hampered. Pay and expect better service should be the principle of every citizen, the Chief Minister said.
“I also encourage every citizen of the State to maintain civic sense and also create awareness about it. We should be conscious of our environment and work towards keeping Nagaland Green by 2020. If we can keep all our towns and villages green and preserve our natural beauty like the rivers, forest, our rich culture and traditions then that alone will turn our land into a new tourist destination,” he added.
