The statement made by the Rising People’s Party today, stating that the Nagaland state government’s machinery is basically confined to Dimapur and Kohima areas only, is not wrong.
One being the commercial hub and the other being the state capital, it is understandable that the two urban centers have some natural advantage over the other towns and districts. However, the development disparity between the two cities and the rest of the towns in Nagaland is just too wide and unnatural.
By virtue of having bigger population sizes and having more government establishments, Kohima and Dimapur are no doubt advancing by leaps and bounds while the other urban centers not so much.
Mokokchung, often regarded as the third major urban center of Nagaland, has not been seeing any major development as compared to Kohima and Dimapur. The otherwise cannot be said of the other district headquarters and urban centers in Nagaland. While development and progress of Kohima and Dimapur is a good thing for the state as a whole, the rest of Nagaland should not be sidelined in the process.
People will migrate to urban centers like Kohima and Dimapur from all over the state and beyond in search of greener pastures as is happening right now. They will keep growing as more and more people flock there in search of economic and employment opportunities.
In the long run, they will become unmanageable. Crime rates will soar. Urban poverty and unemployment will rise. Carrying capacity of the two cities will be saturated. Public amenities will become inadequate for the teeming population. Along with the benefits of growth will come the burdens of unplanned urbanization.
More and more resources will be needed to manage the two cities, regrettably at the cost of equitable development of the rest of Nagaland. Kohima and Dimapur are already too congested and any more unplanned growth will make a pity tale of the two cities.
Throes of Mokokchung
We get a town we deserve. How many monsoons will the newly paved blacktop last?
When will the park being built in honour of the first chief minister of Nagaland be open to the public?
When will the youth hostel be inaugurated? How long before the road to the premier college in Nagaland gets a makeover?
When will the pedestrian overpass in the heart of the town be built? When will the military cantonments give way to public infrastructure development?
When will our local talents play in turf grounds and floodlights?
The questions are aplenty but the answer is one. Our town is simply a reflection of ourselves.
Nobody is going to come from Kohima or Delhi to build our town. It is up to us, the people of Mokokchung, to build our town.
But how? By raising our voices, for starters.