The Rising People’s Party on Thursday met the Governor of Nagaland, Prof. Jagdish Mukhi and submitted a memorandum demanding President’s Rule citing unabated corruption and severe financial crunch in the state warranting financial emergency declaration. The RPP in a press note stated that it had a positive interaction with the Governor and discussed many “off the record” issues apart from submitting the memorandum which it shared with the press.
The RPP memorandum appended by its president, Joel Naga, and general secretary, Amai Chingkhu, mentioned that for the last twenty years in a row, successive state governments have been presenting deficit budgets with the latest number being minus Rs. 2212.74 crore, the highest till date. “The systemic corruption in the state will ensure that the trend continues unless the President of India intervenes and makes course correction,” RPP wrote.
Citing the unearthing of multi-crore fuel adulteration scam in the state on April 23, 2022, RPP said that the monthly Nagaland quota of SK Oil amounting to approximately 4.8 lakh litres issued under the PDS meant for the poor beneficiaries was instead diverted to racketeers. It claimed that the racketeers supply the adulterated fuel to all the fuel stations in the state and even to Manipur and upper Assam. “Most shockingly, all files related to SK Oil is handled by the Chief Minister’s Office,” RPP added.
RPP also wrote that even the post-matric scholarships meant for the almost 40,000 beneficiary students of Nagaland were not spared by the government and that the latest CAG report has highlighted all the cases of fund misappropriation in the state which needed no further explanation.
RPP also said that the ‘Opposition-less’ government was against the very concept of parliamentary democracy and that Nagaland now has an autocratic government. It also alleged that important money bills involving crores of public money are moved in the assembly for consideration and passed unanimously without any discussion or debate.
“With no Opposition in the Assembly, the present government in Nagaland has ‘absolute power’. This situation has led to ‘absolute corruption’ with the result that there is now a severe financial crunch,” RPP wrote in the memo to the Governor.
For the above reasons, and because the UDA coalition have expressed their desire to step down in order to facilitate Naga solution, RPP said that the imposition of President’s Rule in the state was the only way forward.