Being a Ph.D research scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, I got an opportunity to visit Kohima, the capital of Nagaland to participate in an international seminar at St Joseph College, Jakhama, Nagaland. After alighting down at Dimapur airport I took a taxi to go to Kohima which took two and half an hours. The driver who took me to Kohima was a young, moderately educated boy. While travelling I got engaged with him to know about the pathetic condition of road towards Kohima. He blamed the political class as well the corruption in the bureaucracy for such worst condition of the road. There are no emergency facility available alongside the road People in Kohima have to buy water due to inadequate water pipelines. There is regular electric outage. Private and government hospitals are not well equipped. A patient with serious aliment has to transfer either to Dibrugarh or to Dimapur.
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India visited Kohima in December, 2014 and attended Hornbill Festival and pushed peace talks between different conflicting ideologies. His visit to Kohima did not yield results so far.
Before leaving Delhi I was little bit afraid of going to insurgency affected area but I found the Naga people very friendly. The attendants at the hotel are careful and soft-spoken. People are quite religious to go to church for Sunday prayer. A bundle of appreciation goes to the Christians who are spreading education among the underprivileged.
I spoke to a few traders and shopkeepers in the local market of Kohima and found that they want to expand their business to the adjoining areas but are afraid of insurgency. Naga People have been migrating to other states in search of employment. Apart from few incidents people professing different religious faiths live in harmony. And there is an element of brotherhood.
It becomes all the responsibility of all the political groups to restore peace in the area so that more businessmen should come forward to invest in the state. The financial support on the part of the central government to Nagaland is not enough. Political engagement on behalf of the central government needs to be reviewed. There is an urgency to look at socio-economic upliftment of the people of Kohima. The state government needs to push developmental projects. New government schools, colleges, and professional institutions should be opened to accommodate burgeoning population.
Rahul Kumar Balley
