[caption id="attachment_88865" align="alignnone" width="500"]
Chief Minister TR Zeliang speaking at Mhainamtsi village golden jubilee on Friday.[/caption]
Dimapur, Dec. 16: The tenets of peace and unity begin at the village level, stated Chief Minister TR Zeliang.
Speaking as the chief guest at the golden jubilee celebration of Mhainamtsi village near Jalukie town in Peren district Friday morning, Zeliang emphasised that every wing of the village unit is equally important and called for unity on all fronts.
“Today, our society seems to be fragmented,” he noted while adding that the need of the hour is peace and unity for all Nagas. He, therefore, called for reconciliation in the true spirit of forget and forgive to march ahead for an epoch-making era.
“We have one of the most fertile lands in Nagaland and our people are second to none. We cannot enlarge our land but we can create a sustainable infrastructure to boost our economy,” Zeliang said while explaining that the only input required is planning and hard work.
He further stated that peace and unity should precede all developments as economic development alone cannot guarantee society’s progress while urging the gathering to plan out for prosperity.
The Chief Minister also informed that skill development and different training programmes for youth will be launched very soon.
Meanwhile, Zeliang said Mhainamtsi village, founded in 1966 by various Zeliangrong communities from Nagaland, Manipur and Assam, could very well be “a role model for other Nagas to emulate if the village can continue to maintain its cohesiveness and peaceful and harmonious coexistence of the Zemes, Liangmais and the Rongmais,” a CMO release said.
“Zeliangrongs are an important component of the Naga family and if the Zeliangrongs can forget their differences and unite as one big family, the tribe can become a pride for the entire Naga family,” he said and expressed happiness that initiatives have been undertaken by various Zeliangrong organisations in recent times to come under one single entity.
“The idea behind founding of Mhainamtsi village was to bring together Zeliangrongs from various part of the region and that idea is most remarkable. And now, it is the bounden duty of those living today to endeavour to fulfill the dream of the founders and uphold their plan to bring the people together,” Zeliang exhorted and went on to call upon the Naga people to endeavour to reconcile, forget the petty differences and forge together as on for the mutual benefit of all, the CMO said.
He cited the example of Zeliangrong Union and the Zeliangrong Baudi which have decided to amalgamate under on nomenclature saying “this is a positive step forward for unity.”
The CMO said he urged the villagers to form Self Help Groups and to go for collective farming for sustainable economy of the village such as piggery, poultry, fishery and vegetable cultivation.
“Sustainable development is the key to success today and we should start in a small way from now onwards if we are to enrich our villagers. We cannot possibly depend on the Government to provide employment and revenue-generating avenues to all our people,” the Chief Minister said.
“If you can strengthen the established Self Help Groups, be it women, youth or men groups, other schemes under the VDBs such as MNREGA can be injected into your systems as introduced by the World Bank through Northeast Rural Livelihood Programme (NERLP),” the Chief Minister was quoted as saying by the CMO.
Home Minister Y Patton, who also addressed the gathering, urged upon the people of Peren district to let TR Zeliang return to the Assembly uncontested so that he can lead the State for many more years to come, the CMO said.
“In politics, we do not go for quantity, but quality and since we know the quality of TR Zeliang, we the legislators have unanimously selected him to be our leader and to lead the State,” Patton was quoted as saying by the CMO.
