My Years in Service

CONTINUED-38... Despite the Prohibition Law, I had officially permitted the use of zutho (rice beer) which was part of the staple food in the days of yore. However, ‘hard liquor’ was also surreptitiously  being smuggled in by the food stall vendors. The disciplined use of it could unfortunately not strictly be enforced because the enforcers were also the users. We had instances of our NAP boys on duty, zig-zagging the straight paths,...some of them using their rifles as a walking stick and slurring their orders for the stall closures after the fixed hour was done,..which more often provoked irritation and retaliation than obedience. [dropcap][/dropcap]COMING back to Tourism sector, I had very little time to prepare for the Hornbill Festival 2005. After having gone through a couple of years of makeshift celebration at the Kohima local ground, the festival venue had been permanently shifted to this new location called ‘Kisama’. If the readers still remember: during my first stint in the Department of Tourism way back in 1995-6, the salient concept of setting up of a Tourist Village was supposed to be at Chumukedima hill top above the NAP HQs, where a 1000 acres of land had been acquired from Chumukedima Village to realise this dream. This was now being watered down and being recreated in this new location instead, 12 kms away from Kohima. The land was acquired by the Department of Arts & Culture (A&CD), which partially belonged to Kigwema and Phesama Villages, with the intent of setting up a Second World War Museum. Since the entire area was not needed by the A &CD, Tourism Department had been given clearance by the Government to set up this Heritage Village within this acquired area. In the end, while the complete area belonged to the A&C Department, the larger area had been physically occupied by the Tourism Department and this new locality identity was coined, representing Kigwema with a ‘Ki’ and Phesama with a ‘sama’= Kisama to maintain the traditional land ownership equilibrium. The infrastructure that existed was still at a very rudimentary state and much was needed to be done within a clear timeframe of four months after my take over. The entry gate to the heritage site was not commensurate to the stature of the festival that had already gained some appreciation within the State and beyond. We only had an insignificant narrow single lane approach road leading to the venue without a proper parking lot, which had caused a great deal of traffic jams and parking havoc in the past. The Hon’ble Chief Minister had therefore earmarked an amount of Rs.20.00 lakhs for construction of an exit road from his fund. An emergency review was had with the CM. Instead of an exit road, as perceived by the CM, the department proposed that this fund be diverted for a double lane approach road and a parking lot, with a prominent traditional gate at the entry point. CM was amenable. Since budget was insufficient to deal with these priorities, he assured the department that this would be catered to eventually and to go ahead as proposed. Getting a reliable contractor to do a time bound job without sufficient budget became an awkward problem. Earlier, during my stint in PWD department, I had observed some capable contractors who would probably be willing to take the challenge of first partially investing their money for the project. I did not have time to go through the codal formalities but having verified that Mr. Vilalie Khamo, a Class I contractor, had the resources of both the machinery and the essential material like the bitumen for road carpeting, I requested him to take up this assignment. While being sceptically hesitant about the budget initially, he believed that I would live up to my commitment and decided to take his chances with me. We began the work on a war footing. Mr. V. Khamo and I stood with his workers late into the midnight hours as they slogged almost on a 24/7 routine. We had minor interferences from the Phesama land owners, spearheaded by one Mr. Sahu, also a class I contractor from this village, disgruntled for not being awarded the work. That this work was being done without a proper earmarked budget did not deter him from causing trouble, knowing full well that he neither had the requisite machinery nor the materials and would not be prepared to complete this time bound assignment with his own initial investment, which would be quite substantial. The real land owners were neutralized by deployment in some segments of work like the retention walls for road expansion, to ease the pressure. Mr. Sahu however, continued with his unpleasant ways by rabble rousing additional roadblocks, bringing up the issue of disallowing the department to use the river source for Kisama resort despite the Government having acquired the land including the water source. We resolved the problem by engaging the Phesama youth to take charge of the entry gate fees on a percentage basis and also gave the responsibility to ensure that the water source was not disrupted. Mr. Sahu finally ran out of his ‘troubling’ resource. By end November 2005, we had a dignified entry gate erected with a double lane carpeted approach road and a parking lot on a record time. This face lift made all the difference to the general aura of the festival. Mr. Vilalie and his boys had done a splendid job. The Hornbill Festival had been evoking outbursts of negative emotions as much as it had provoked positive appreciation, in the past. Both the sectors had legitimate arguments...but at the end of the day, we all live in an imperfect world. Despite the Prohibition Law, I had officially permitted the use of zutho (rice beer) which was part of the staple food in the days of yore. However, ‘hard liquor’ was also surreptitiously being smuggled in by the food stall vendors. The disciplined use of it could unfortunately not strictly be enforced because the enforcers were also the users. We had instances of our NAP boys on duty, zig-zagging the straight paths,...some of them using their rifles as a walking stick and slurring their orders for the stall closures after the fixed hour was done,..which more often provoked irritation and retaliation than obedience. The Hornbill Rock Festival in the evening session was also drawing in a huge crowd of exuberant younger generation, which necessarily included many having a ‘not so disciplined’ good time. Our uniformed boys in their inebriated state was a recipe for raising the cold December temperature, proving to be more of a problem than a solution to law and order maintenance. The department drew a lot of flak for this...but the tourists were loving it...minus the NAP boys. For all said and done, this was a centrifugal platform for the younger generation to absorb some of the Naga culture, tradition and custom that they were becoming alien to, as much as it also attracted the tourists for the same reasons. I plugged my ears, shut my mind and went ahead with it anyway. The festivity was also dampened by drunken driving that had caused loss of lives on Highway 39, but overall...it concluded reasonably well. Lessons were learnt from the my first year’s experience. At least I now had a full year at my disposal to cater to the shortfalls that were noticed. Meanwhile, in the Arts & Culture sector, the Project Team were well on their way into their respective assignments. As a lay man I has a very rudimentary perception about archaeology, but the excavation at Chungliyimti led by Archaeologist Tiatoshi, was beginning to generate a lot of intriguing finds that led me to visit the site. The oral history depicts Chungliyimti as an ancient settlement in the likeness of Makheil and Khezakeno, with Tribes like the Aos, Sangtams and the Yimchungrus vaguely sourcing their migratory origin from this location. This ancestral settlement is approximately 5 Kms from Chare Town in Tuensang District. It is the home of the Longtrok, (six monoliths) from where the Aos were supposed to have emerged as a Tribe, as per their folklore. This hard core folklore belief about their origin and the hard evidence seen at the excavation site appeared quite contrary on the ground. The writer is a retired IAS Officer. Forest Colony, Kohima