EMN
Dimapur, March 7
Noke led NPF has appealed to all sections of the people to remain calm and make all out efforts to maintain a peaceful atmosphere so that normalcy can return at the earliest.
The party also appealed to neighbouring states and fellow citizens all over the country to refrain from creating further misunderstanding in the greater interest of communal harmony and national unity of the nation. Expressing concern of the people, 20 NPF legislators under the collective leadership of ‘NPF president’ Noke Wagnao and the group’s Legislature Party leader G. Kaito Aye in a joint statement today said, when Nagaland is burning and the people are suffering, the State government is failing to rise up to the occasion.
On curfew being imposed for several days, the statement said, State government has failed to make basic arrangements to ease the sufferings of the people.
“No arrangements have been put in place for the general public to come out and obtain essential commodities and the people are facing untold sufferings”. Dimapur, the nerve centre and commercial hub of Nagaland and its adjoining areas of neighbouring States continues to be in lockdown with imposition of curfew, the statement said.
The Noke led NPF pointed that the shutdown of Dimapur has deeply impacted the economy of the commercial hub especially during a time when the State government is facing severe financial crisis.
A conservative estimate puts the economic loss of Dimapur, shutdown and closure of all government establishments and non-government institutions for the past several days at more than 100 crore.
The NPF said, Chief Minister T R. Zeliang and Home Minister Y. Patton have miserably failed to estimate people’s angst resulting in the breakdown of law enforcing agencies thereby leading to the death of the accused person who was in the judicial custody.
The party felt, had there been timely intervention from the govt. level, such ugly and inhuman incidents could have been averted. “This is the water shed demonstration of inefficiencies and in capabilities of CM and Home Minister in real time. Further, the people of Nagaland failed to understand deafening silence of the chief minister and home minster not to talk about their personal intervention in handling the situation. There cannot be two opinions in this unfortunate incident other then voluntarily resigning from the office on moral ground instead of shamelessly clinging on the chair at the expenses of the State.”
On the suspension of senior government officers in the aftermath of the Dimapur incident, the party said, it was nothing but eyewash.
“The leadership has made the officers scapegoats to cover up for their own failure. The incident in Dimapur is due to the failure of the leadership of the chief minister and the home minister, but they have put the officers for altar just to save their skins. The sincere and dedicated officers of the State government should not be treated like mere objects on the altar, so that the issue of the leaders’ failure can be covered up. The suspension orders of the officers are misplaced as there were radar less and only following the instructions of the higher authorities of the government and they did not have the authority to face the situation.”
The statement said, the government remained a mute spectator and strangely absent on all the days when the situation was erupting but suddenly showed up only to suspend officers on the ground.
“Till date the minority chief minister has maintained a mysterious silence on the breakdown of law and order and no reassurance, apology or statement of regret has been issued by him to the people. He has failed to win over civil society and mass based organizations and his failure to take precautionary measures and confidence building steps has landed the State in a situation of deep crisis. He has not even appealed to our neighbouring states or to fellow citizens of mainland India with any message or appeal, leave alone appealing to the Naga people to maintain calm and peaceful atmosphere.”
The Noke led party reasserted its demand that the Chief Minister and his Home Minister step down immediately taking responsibility for all that have gone wrong in Nagaland under their leadership.
“It has been proven beyond doubt that the leadership of TR Zeliang is creating irreparable damage to Naga society and the sooner he resigns the better for Nagaland,” the statement said.
