My Years in Service

Khekiye K. Sema  After my official representation, Mr. A.M Gokhale, the then Chief Secretary of Nagaland, called me up for a chat. He assured me that my tenure at Wokha would only be for a short 6 months stint to deal with the tense ‘law and order’ situation prevalent at that time at Wokha. This assured dateline was well and truly over but my withdrawal was still not in the offing. At the next opportune moment, I paid a courtesy call on the Chief Secretary and jokingly reminded him that I was already on my 8th month at Wokha and that he was showing signs of faltering in his maths subject. On the 10th month, my 22nd transfer order in 24 years of service finally arrived. It was a customary norm as much as it was a matter of courtesy that the officer handing over charge normally write a background status of the time during his charge, to keep the incoming officer appraised of the events that had taken place and forewarn the incoming colleagues the needs for him/her to keep his/her focus on some of the pertinant issues,...a conventional etiquette, which most officers do not observe. The following verbatum account being presented is therefore related to this handing over of charge report to my successor on 13th May 1999............ ONE fine day, a very bright idea hit someone somewhere upstairs that a full fledged Secretary to the Government should be posted to the District as a Deputy Commissioner. The second bright light that hit the policy makers was to locate a fall guy from the bureaucratic basket. For such an assignment, it did not take them long to pick a sitting target...Khekiye K. Sema. The amazing part of this wonderful POLICY was that it was only applicable to me. After a formal written protest, I packed my bags and took over charge of the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Wokha on the 28th day of July 1998. My predecessor handed over the charge without much fuss and most cheerfully informed me that the District Administration was under an ultimatum, with 5th August 1998 as a dateline, from a very aggressive Changsu (New) Village. A slightly deranged boy from this village went missing from the Doyang area and suspected to have been killed by the NEEPCO personnel. The Administration was required to produce the culprit within this dateline or face the consequence of their weath... a rampage against NEEPCO at Doyang. At the heat of the moment, my predecessor had very little option but to concede to their demand, if only to quell their excessive temprature. This was now my baby: a nice way to start my tenure. On 5th August’98, I served a notice to this village informing them that: (1) Their proposed aggression against NEEPCO, based on mere suspecion without evidence, would warrant a sever collective punishment from the Administration; (2) that the Police were doing their very best to investigate into the matter but cannot be expected to perform miracles; (3) the Administration cannot be made a scapegoat of the whole unfortunate incident despite the fact that we were sympathetic for their loss; (4) the ultimatum be withdrawn without any conditions. Better senses took over and they withdrew. The District Administration earned a plus point. On my arrival to Wokha, I noted that the town was in an ugly mess. The dustbins were overflowing into the streets. The first thing that was planned was to call for general social work to clean up this mess. The response was good. The Deputy Commissioner along with all his Administrative Officers took the lead by joining the social work in a very physical way. A good impression was set in the eyes of the public. Land owners (LOs): Within weeks of my takeover, the LOs put me to the test. They started rampant construction of ghumtis at the main Police point area. They were ordered to remove the structures within 3 days. Their disrespect for Administration was clearly displayed. After the dateline was done the Police and my DBS were called out. We tore down the structures, collected all the salvaged materials and kept it under the custody of the Police for a few days. Thereafter, an auction was ordered. The LOs came begging me to forgive their commission and to at least allow them to take back their materials. They were told in no uncertain terms that they were given ample opportunity to do so, but they had not accepted this offer. If they now wanted the materials, they would be allowed to bid for it at the auction and not otherwise. They joined the auction. Obviously, the other bidders took pity on them and the LOs won the bid to buy back their own materials...Rs.3000/-. The landowners were back in my office requesting me yet again to kindly reduce their burden. It was sternly refused. I however took pity on the elders among the lot, and gave them Rs.1000/- as a personal contribution, but that they would have to pay the full amount as bidden by them. They bought back their own materials. They had lost the contest. From this point onwards the landowners have been very careful not to mess with the Administration. On the issue of the landowners (LOs), it needs to be noted pointedly that, in the past, they have thoroughly been given a free hand to manipulate the system without any reservation or respect for the General Administration (GA). This scenario, most unfortunately, has been facilitated with a lot of helping hand from our own local Administrative Officers (past and present), who have compromised the system for their own personal gains. Case references are aplenty. One can well understand the LOs impunity, by the notice they served to even the Deputy Commissioner, to pay land tax for the occupied area of the DCs residence. The Government does not have free land any more in Wokha. The British occupied areas bounded by a circular road have fully been occupied. Even within this defined area, the landowners have imposed their will by making the incumbent Government site holders to pay for it, on the ground that that the Government has not paid compensation. Their claims go further. I was utterly shocked to learn that these LOs were raising tax for use of the local playground! During 1997, the District tournament was conducted at Merapani in order to avoid paying this tax to the LOs. I had taken a very strong exception to this. The last year’s football and cricket tournament was played in this local ground. My specific instruction to the organisers was NOT to enter into any discourse with the LOs and to direct them to take up the matter with the DC. The LOs did contact the organisers for the tax, as was expected, but none of them showed any resolve to meet me on this. The games were conducted without any further interference from them. The issue here is simple. It is a common knowledge that during the British regime this football ground was levelled through forced labour from most all villages in the District. Translated into labour cost value, it would come to an astronomical amount. Should the LOs still want to continue with their claims, this input made by all the villages will have to be paid for by them first. Secondly, such claims have emerged only in the recent past, after the Government has been in control for over 50 years without intrruption. This status does offer some element of legal standing to the Government for maintenance of possession. I can only forewarn my sucessor that any sign of wavering shown by GA can only compound the issue. (To be continued) The writer is a retired IAS Officer. Forest Colony, Kohima