My Years in Service

Continued-6 Believe it or not the villagers had never seen a vehicle this close. It caused an amazing commotion both of man and animals. What a spectacle it was! An elderly gray haired woman with a  walking stick inched laboriously  to my jeep, rubbed the headlight and  affectionately talked to it saying “where have you come from? I heard your loud strain. You must be tired after that hard climb. I wish I had something give you but I have nothing to offer”.  She meant every word of it imagining the jeep as a living being. Read on.... [dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE first volcanic eruption of Mt. Hollohon came in the form of a case perpetuated by Mr. Ghokheto the Head GB of Khekiye village...remember him? A young student named Zhekuto, from the same villages, came and reported that his father had purchased a rice mill but was disallowed from operating it by the Hd. GB because his permission had not been sought; The case was pending in the Dubashi Court and he requested me to take over the case. I advised the young man to let the matter be sorted out at that level first since it was already filed in the DB court before my coming. He had the liberty to appeal to my court should he feel dissatisfied with their decision. I later learned that the DB Court had upheld the submission of the Head GB denying the owner the right to run his rice mill presumably on a customary consideration that permission of the Head GB was not taken. This was an atrocious miscarriage of justice but since there was no appeal I had let the matter rest. The young man never came back but his father had unlocked the crooked mind of the Head GB. A couple of months later I received a report that Mr. Ghokheto had himself purchased a rice mill. He didn’t have the investment brains to think about it earlier. What more, he set it up in the village council hall. The blatant misuse of the village court for his private enterprise was an entirely different proposition which was not about to be tolerated. I summoned Mr. Ghokheto the Hd.GB, to my office and confirmed his action to be a fact. He was verbally instructed to immediately remove his rice mill from the village council hall which was an extension of my court in the village and that his action amounted to a contempt. This triggered a series of unpalatable events. I received an official letter from Mr. K. Hollohon the MLA, asking me to let Mr. Ghokheto use the village council hall for his rice mill for a while till he was able to set up his own. This was followed up by the visit of the Pastor and the Deacons and then by the elder women’s group of the village one after another, informing me that the village would be hosting a Bible conference in the village and that Mr. Ghokheto’s rice mill was indispensable. This was all refused. Compromise was not an option here. The persistent campaign instigated by the Hd.GB was going out of hand. I decided to put a conclusive end to this nuisance. An open court at the village itself was declared on a pre-fixed date. When I arrived, Mr. Ghokheto was absent despite having received the court’s notice. He had deliberately pushed off to Zunheboto. The arrogance of this man was unimaginable! I had the option of imposing a fine for his insolence but overlooked this to focus on the main issue. I conducted the court proceeding in abstentia and issued an order giving Ghokheto a month’s time to dismantle the rice mill from the village court. Failure to comply would result in forceful ejection of the rice mill. The proceedings had been carried out in the presence of the wife of the Hd. GB. When she was asked to receive the court’s order, she got up and started walking back towards her kitchen instead. The arrogance of the birds of feathers infuriated me. Courtesy was thrown out the window. I roared at her in anger. She hurriedly retraced her steps and did as she was told. Thereafter I headed for home. En-route I met Ghokheto who apologetically tried to explain the emergency for which he had to go to Zunheboto. I did not have the patience to listen to his concocted story and so bluntly cut him short and asked him to strictly follow the court’s order left behind and moved on. The audacious persistence of this crooked face was unbelievable. Another official letter soon arrived from the MLA, this time asking me to back off. It was then that I decided to let the MLA know that he was grazing in my pasture. He was officially notified that he had no jurisdiction over the functioning of my court and if he chose to persist, I would not hesitate to summon him to my Court for contempt. That ended further meddling into my court affairs. I had been otherwise preoccupied with other matters that I had forgotten the one month dateline given to Mr. Ghokheto, Hd.GB which had long expired. I sent OC Police, Aghunato, to verify whether the court order had been implemented with strict instruction that if it had not, he should dismantle rice mill, throw it out of the village court, lock the premises and submit the key to me in person. Later in the evening the OC Police reported back saying that the villagers had begged him for more time. He had returned without complying to the order given him. The total administrative system was in a disarray including the Police. The OC was ordered back to the village to execute the court’s order or else face suspension on his return. The OC understood the seriousness of his assignment only then. Though the villagers had pleaded with him again, this time his service was on the line. He did as he was bid and returned at 8.00 pm that night with the key. The intermittent volcanic eruption of Mt. Hollohon was contained. The first chapter of respect for administration had begun in Aghunato. The prevalence of a rough shod tribalistic attitudes was another permanent fixture noticed in the mental framework of some policy dictators of this area. Aghunato had two villages belonging to Yemchungru Tribe …Yezashi and Aghiyili. The latter village was located around 5 kms away from the main road but funds had never been provided for them and was still unconnected by approach road. In coordination with the Block Development Officer at Tokiye I had earmarked some fund for the construction of a village approach road. Unfortunately the alignment of this proposed road had to pass through approximately 150 feet patch of land belonging to a Sumi. He refused the right of way unless he was given the contract work within his land or be compensated. I called the land owner, gave him a written assurance that an alternative development in his land would be provided as a compensation. Aghiyili village must be left alone to construct their road. He agreed. Despite the official agreement forged, he had promptly started to develop a new paddy field on the proposed alignment. On receipt of the report I served him a notice to present himself at site. He was not there when I arrived but his laborer was busy plowing the road alignment. The work was stopped. Later in the evening he was arrested for breach of trust and failure to comply to the official agreement. He spent the night kicking the CGI sheet walled lock up crying in frustration. When questioned about his violation of the agreement and his contempt of office next morning in court, he had no answer. He was fined Rs.5000/- given one week to produce the amount and released. I was leaving Aghunato HQs for a week’s casual leave and therefore had asked my Circle Officer, Asuto to come and hold the fort in my absence. He was strictly forewarned that the local MLA might send him a note asking him not to take action against the culprit until I returned. The Circle Officer was told to ignore it and if the fined amount was not deposited in court within the stipulated time, he was to go ahead and have him arrested and committed to jail sentence. When I returned to the HQs I was given a report by my CO: He did receive a note from the MLA as anticipated; the defaulter had not reported to court with the money. When Police was dispatched to have him arrested he had escaped to Zunheboto and had reported to the DC begging him to accept the fined amount. The DC accepted the money and CO was informed accordingly. Aghiyili village was able to construct their approach road without any further disturbance. Lithsumi was another village which was funded through the Block as it did not have an approach road. This was the village to which the tiger spirited DB belonged. On completion of the work I had carried out a test drive to this village. Believe it or not the villagers had never seen a vehicle this close. It caused an amazing commotion both of man and animals. What a spectacle it was! An elderly gray haired woman with a walking stick inched laboriously to my jeep, rubbed the headlight and affectionately talked to it saying “where have you come from? I heard your loud strain. You must be tired after that hard climb. I wish I had something give you but I have nothing to offer”. She meant every word of it imagining the jeep as a living being. She later returned with an egg for the Jeep. For her this was a supreme sacrifice for the ultimate experience in her life. No amount of explanation would deter her resolve to gift her egg to the Jeep. I finally accepted her offer and in turn gave her a hundred rupees saying the Jeep was very grateful for her kindness. I had the most expensive egg for breakfast the next morning, on behalf of the Jeep. The time for the first inevitable confrontation with my DBs presented itself. I was about to leave station for official work to Kohima for a few days. Before departure the Special DB and his team had been assigned to sort out a village case. At that time we had two NLC porters attached to my establishment: Mr. Kiyevi, (closer to 70 years, already beginning to bend with age but still pretending he could work) and Mr. Ramji, a middle aged man. On my return only the old man Kiyevi reported for work. The second day went by without Ramji showing up. On the third morning of absence I inquired from Kiyevi whether Ramji was ill. “Akijeu (Sir), haven’t you heard? Ramji was discharged by Kughato Special”. I was speechless. I then sent for Ramji and ordered him to carry out his routine work as before. On reaching the office that morning I summoned the 7 DBs and asked for an explanation. Kughato Special responded with his standard arrogance that Ramji was disobedient when they had taken him to the village for the case and so they had discharged him. I gave them a thorough dressing down for exercising authority beyond their brief. A stern written warning was then issued that in future such a behavior would invite disciplinary action. Even up to this point they showed no real sign of repentance but I let the matter rest at that. We needed to take this forward slowly a step at a time. Apparently this was the first instance that the DBs had been officially reprimanded. Word spread like wild fire in this small township that the DBs had been put in place by the new SDO(C). They couldn’t stand the public humiliation. What transpired next was an act of insubordination of the highest order. I was “gheraod” by all my DBs in my residence lead by Mr. Special. Initially I tried to tolerate their affront with lighter banter and comments. They asserted, “Administration and DBs are like a husband and wife”. I had jokingly retorted: “where the hell did I pick up so many ugly wives?” My lack of acknowledging their serious intent seemed to have irked them and also seemed to have created an entirely wrong impression. They read it for weakness. Then came the final salvo from Mr. Special: “During NEFA administration we were allowed to exercise smaller privileges like this. In fact we have even fined Administrative Officers for their misdemeanors. Your written warning has eroded our reputation and it only serves a counterproductive purpose of weakening the Administration. It must officially be withdrawn failing which we will refuse to cooperate with you!”This was the final punch of the discourse. This threatening demand by Mr. Special was made with a heavy dose of aggression and arrogance. The gloves came off. I hit the roof. The time to deal with reality had dawned. My normal loud voice rose a few decibels higher and louder as I put my foot down: “No.1. Get this into your empty heads! We are no longer under NEFA Administration! No. 2. We have a Govt. of Nagaland with rules for administration which you will strictly follow or be thrown out of service! 3. This blatant aggression shown to me today is an audacious, unacceptable act of insubordination for which I can suspend all of you this very minute. Because of your ignorance and lack of exposure I showed you leniency by limiting my action to a written warning only without apportioning any penalty. I shall restrain myself from taking any extreme step even now but do not try my patience! 4. This much I promise you though; your insubordination shall be recorded in each of your Annual Confidential Report (ACR) which will have adverse impact in your future services, especially for Mr. Special! 5. Try your non-cooperation and see where it gets you! Understand v-e-r-y carefully that… I … I … Khekiye, have the power to suspend or terminate your service! So don’t test my resolve because I will do what I say! That’s all! This discussion is over! You may leave… now!” There was a stunned silence for a while. They probably felt that they had unwittingly run into a brick wall for the first time. I could sense that they were seething inside but seeing my anger and most of all what I had said about the authority to terminate their services, they uncharacteristically opted for a pragmatic retreat and silently trooped out of the house with Mr. Special in the lead. I was certain that they would not jeopardize their service they so prided in, public humiliation or not. A lesson in humility imparted and bitterly swallowed. (Several years letter Mr. Kughato Special DB learnt a harsh lesson when his promotion to the status of PA to DC was rescinded on account of the negative endorsement in his ACR). The writer is a retired IAS Officer