EMN
DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 10
The NPCC has asked Parliamentary Secretary for School Education Yitachu as to how the staggering deficit of Rs 1252.45 crore is accepted as normal when the State is currently on a plan holiday for the second consecutive year bringing all major developmental works to a grinding halt.
In a release today, the NPCC sought to point out that many state government employees under different departments are not getting their salary in time with teachers under School Education department not paid salary for the past six months, payment to contractors is long due while the Chief Minister and his colleagues have been making a beeline to Delhi for the past five months without any success.
“If Yitachu feels that the deficit is normal, why should the Chief Minister and his colleagues have to literally beg in front of Prime Minister Modi for wiping out the deficit and ended up getting Yoga lessons in return?” it asked.
The NPCC alleged that making comparisons with other states when our own state is in shambles as a result of misgovernance has been the ploy of the NPF government to hoodwink the people.
Giving the government employees figures in Manipur (65,000), Sikkim (35,000), Arunachal Pradesh (45,000) and Meghalaya (55,000), the NPCC sought to know how Nagaland landed up with over 1,25,000 employees. “The net result is of random political appointment carried out by NPF govt for the past 12 years without paying scant regards to the 13th FC recommendation that the states ought to spend 35% of their budget on salaries of govt employees,” it stated.
For Nagaland, the 13th Finance Commission assessment of salary payment was at Rs 1474.85 crore for one year, but during 2012-13, a total expenditure of Rs 2570.32 crore was incurred, Rs 3119.73 crore for 2013-14 and over Rs 3580 crore estimated for 2014-15. “This enormous escalation was due to the random political appointments over the years by the NPF govt,” the NPCC said.
It said in 2011-12, the total number of state government employees was 1,10,038 which leapfrogged to 1,20,819 by 2012-13, an increase of 10,781 employees appointed within a year. By 2013-14, another 4,791 employees were further appointed taking the figure to 1,25,309 serving employees, the State Congress said.
Stating that the State has an excess of 54,689 employees, the Congress said the State needs to retrench 46,599 employees to maintain financial stability. However, instead of retrenching the employees, random backdoor appointments continued unabated bringing the State to a situation where the salary expenditure gobbles up 60% of the total revenue expenditure which is over and above the 35% limit set by the 13th FC, it stated.
The NPCC said even though the NPF government has been repeatedly blaming the 13th Finance Commission to defend their corrupt activities and misgovernance, it can never escape the ignominy of being unable to deliver effective governance to the people despite a staggering number of employees when other states with lesser number of government employees are functioning smoothly.
By continuously issuing thousands of appointments through back door, the State is now saddled with thousands of ghost employees who continue to claim salary without reporting for work in different offices, the Congress said while stating that the prime example is the School Education department where the issue of proxy teachers has hogged more headlines than any worthwhile achievement of the department.
In the light of this, the Congress suggested that the NPF government instead of passing the buck to conceal its ineptness and cluelessness to tackle the situations faced by the State should rather settle down to the process of rectifying its own mistakes and streamline the entire government machinery or else the State will face a grim situation of total chaos compounding the miseries of people burdened and threatened from all ends.
