Kohima Bureau
Kohima, March 17 (EMN): Nagaland bids farewell to one of its finest administrators Pankaj Kumar, who had served as the chief secretary of the state. A programme seeing him off was conducted at the Secretariat Plaza Saturday afternoon.
In a career spanning over 30 years, Pankaj Kumar spent 17 years in different parts of Nagaland such as Tuensang, Shamatore, Pfutsero, Mon, Dimapur, Zunheboto and Kohima in different capacities.
Kumar was appointed the chief secretary of the state on March 1 2015.
Kumar has been appointed additional secretary in the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Kumar took charge as head of the state during a crucial period following the retirement of a group of senior officers that left the administration shorn of senior and experienced officers.
Speaking about his experience as the chief secretary of the state of the past three years, Kumar called his assignment to the service of the state an honour, a rare privilege and a challenge. He had no idea that he would be asked to assume the responsibilities as chief secretary when he returned in September 2014 and found himself in the front as his predecessor Dr. D Bhalla who had opted for the post of secretary in the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The officer recalled the difficult times of agitations and crises in the state he was confronted with after taking charge. Kumar recalled the March 5 incident in Dimapur (the lynching of a person accused of rape); ‘ENSF agitations’, several rounds of political instability; agitations by civil service personnel and teachers etc., as a trying time for him and his team.
Also, he recalled the agitation against the municipal elections as one of the most critical periods for the state; the issue of ‘solution, not election’ just before the last election—an event which tested his mettle, and the March 5 incident which exposed the state enforcement’s weakness in crowd control mechanism.
While these agitations highlighted unmet aspirations of various interest groups and weaknesses in the governing system, Kumar said, on a positive note though “We need to learn from them and strengthen governance for the betterment of the society.”
Also, the officer mentioned some achievements as “unprecedented in the history of the state” that happened during his journey as well, Kumar informed that the state has four major externally-aided projects: the Nagaland Health Project funded by the World Bank; Climate Resistant High farming funded by IFAD, Nagaland Forest Management Project funded by JICA; and the Biodiversity Conservation in Community Conserved Areas funded by the KfW.
While these projects will be implemented during the next several years, he reminded that proper implementation will be the key to sustainable development.
Also, Kumar underlined some challenges such as improving governance in Nagaland: streamlining the recruitment process, the need for greater transparency in award of contracts; allocation of funds and the need to give more priority to completion of ongoing projects.
He observed that the biggest administrative concern was in how to generate more resources for roads, power and water supply. These are, according to him, are ‘higher and tougher peaks’ yet to be scaled. Kumar was hopeful that one day the state would be able to scale them.
As his innings in the state comes to an end, the departing chief secretary thanked his senior officers and supporting staff for their cooperation in the task of governing the state.
“It is only with the combined effort of the administrative hierarchy- from top to bottom, secretary to director to driver and peon- that government works get done,” said Kumar. He thanked the people of the state for the affection and good wishes and sought for ‘forgiveness for any hurt caused to anyone.’
The outgoing chief secretary has also assured that as he leaves to take up the new assignment, he will keep the aspirations of the state in mind.
Temjen Toy, additional chief secretary and finance commissioner, spoke on behalf of the government while speeches were also delivered by representatives from the civil services and employees’ groups, among others.