Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, July 30 (EMN): To aid agricultural activities and transportation of produce, the Niti Aayog has implemented a grant-in-aid scheme (GIA) and special financial assistance (SFA) to local rural groups from excluded areas not covered by Part IX and Part IX A of the Constitution of India.
The chief minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, speaking during an event that distributed tractors to farmers here in Dimapur, cited that Nagaland was exempt from the purview of Schedule IX and IX A of the Constitution of India.
"Against the backdrop of the above recommendation, the govt. of India has decided to provide budgetary support for the development of all areas not covered under the territory of the 14th Finance Commission (FC)," he said. He said to have issued guidelines about releasing funds from the financial year 2017-18.
The excluded areas include the states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, and the hill areas of Manipur, and the hill district of Darjeeling in West Bengal. Because of the exclusion, the excluded areas are not covered by any scheme of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
Drawing from the "past bitter experience of the inability" of the state government to access funds, Rio informed that the Rural Development department was made the nodal agency to oversee the 60 tractors for 60 constituencies in 2017.
"Since the RD department has networking with all villages and village development boards (VDBs) in the state along with adequate manpower to implement the scheme of grant-in-aid / special financial assistance to excluded areas, the RD department has taken up the initiative," Rio said.
The scheme allocated tractors with implements to all the constituencies in the state with INR 30 lakh to each 60 constituencies. It is also to identify and recommend projects. Rio informed that the state received INR 185.09 crore in 2017-18 for various projects and schemes from the grant, which also included the tractors and implements.
Neiphiu Rio also informed that the department will undertake capacity building projects, which will not only benefit the RD department but also the rural areas. "These schemes should reach all the nook and corners of the state and give a chance to identify projects in these areas," he stated.
"The members will identify the problems thus making all to participate in the rural areas and to promote the villages," Rio said.
Addressing farmers and VDB members as well as legislators among others, the chief minister pointed out that the lack of work ethics in the society was resulting in the employment of illegal immigrants as a norm.
"If we want to discourage the illegal immigrants, we should start working ourselves. It is demand and supply of jobs and they come since they have job opportunities," the chief minister reminded. He hoped that the tractor operators that would be employed would be Naga youths and encouraged the youth to learn the values of dignity in labour.
Acknowledging that the central government had assisted Nagaland enough, the chief minister urged citizens to work collectively to "uplift the economy to become a self sufficient state."
