13 Mar 2022

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Nagaland Post www.nagalandpost.com

Vol XXXII No. 96

DIMAPUR, SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2022 Pages 12 ` 5.00

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Govt view on austerity within and growth beyond ‘You got 3 days’: Ukraine soldiers train Correspondent

KO H I M A , M A R 1 2 (NPN): As Nagaland has been landed in deep financial difficulties, the state government has gone on overdrive to effect austerity measures in order to reduce revenue expenditure by rationalising employment in the government. The other option to tide over the over dependence on government jobs and open up employment avenues is to create a peaceful environment to promote entrepreneurship so that more jobs are created and also spur the economy. These were two issues that were addressed during the one day workshop on “Budget simplified” organised by the Kohima Press Club here on Saturday. In the first issue regarding rationalisation of government employment as austerity measure, Finance department’s senior research officer (Budget) Ketoulhou Metha who spoke on ‘Budget Simplified’ at the Heritage conference hall,

Sl. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Year

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22

Amount (in crore) 1252.45 1308.32 1194.35 1437.84 1630.67 1611.98 2358.81 2679.46

Kohima highlighted on the need of media in having better understanding on budgeting and finances. Metha highlighted on the present status of state finances and the ways forward and said that besides reducing revenue expenditure, there was also need to increase capital investment, create a congenial environment for economic growth, facilitate private sector to grow to accommodate the upcoming population e.g. Tourism, EAP funding for capital projects etc. He said the sources of fund for the state include-Share of central taxes, reve-

As on

No of Employees

As on

No of Employees

31.03.2002 31.03.2003 31.03.2004 31.03.2005 31.03.2006 31.03.2007 31.03.2008 31.03.2009 31.03.2010 31.03.2011

95325 96996 100261 102568 104594 108052 112085 111809 111307 114600

31.03.2012 31.03.2013 31.03.2014 31.03.2015 31.03.2016 31.03.2017 31.03.2018 31.03.2019 31.03.2020

120819 121283 125785 119339 119367 124712 123686 127889 124855

nue deficit grant, state’s own tax (SGST, VAT, Road Tax etc), non-tax revenue (Power, NST, Lotteries, Water Supply, Forest royalty etc.), centrally sponsored schemes/ NEC/NLCPR, externally aided projects (EAP), security related expenditure reimbursements, other finance commission awards etc. The revenue expenditures include-- Salaries and Wages, Pensions, Debt Servicing, Administrative/ Establishment Charges, Grants to PSUs, Asset Maintenance, Power Purchase, CSS/NEC/NLCPR, EAPs etc. He pointed out that the non-development revenue

KYIV, MAR 12 (AGENCIES): Ukrainian soldiers, facing a full-blown attack from neighbouring Russia, are now training civilians to use military-grade weapons to fight a war that is not being fought only at the borders but at their homes, reports India Today TV. An abandoned auditorium is now a training ground in the face of an aggressive and gruesome Russian onslaught. The trainer, an army man in uniform, holds a gun and walks up and down the stage as he instructs the civilians and says: “You don’t have three months. You have got only three days to learn how to hold a gun and how to use it to shoot down the Russians.” Meanwhile, Ukrainian soldiers and citizen volunteers who have picked up arms and weapons to defend their country against the Russian invasion are now faced with a new security concern. (Cont’d on p-8) Saboteur elements of the

expenditure like salaries, pension, interest payment and others (pre-actual 202021) stood at Rs. 9111.60 crore. Revenue deficit (BE for 2021-22) stood at Rs. 961.94 crore, fiscal deficit Rs. -1399.82 crore and primary deficit Rs. -388.70 crore. While pointing out that the revenue deficit was primarily due to demonetisation and the pandemic, Metha was optimistic of compensation that would address the issue. With the introduction of pre-paid metering system by the Power department, Metha was hopeful of that the revenue generated would reduce the losses incurred.

Cong elections may be advanced after poll disaster NEW DELHI, MAR 12 (AGENCIES): The Congress’s top decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee or CWC, will meet at 4 p.m. Sunday, three days after a huge defeat in state polls, and is likely to advance internal elections scheduled in September amid renewed questions about its leadership, sources said on Saturday. The Congress faced a wipe-out in state election results declared on Thursday, losing Punjab, one of the last major states under its control, to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and failing to put up a strong fight in three other states

(L-R) Sonia and Rahul Gandhi

where it had hoped for a comeback- Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. The defeat revived searing criticism of the Gandhi family and growing clamour for a complete overhaul and a leadership change by number of party leaders - a demand that was so far confined to the “G-23” or group of 23 “dissenters” who had writ-

ten to Sonia Gandhi two years ago. “There will be no course correction,” said senior Congress leaders, who are speaking out within the party against the Gandhis’ leadership but do not want to come on record. Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, a member of the G-23, on Thursday, had tweeted the party could not avoid change while his

civilians to use guns to fight Russia

Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) and former secretary finance Kikheto Sema in his presentation on ‘overview of state finances and budget’ said the State could not move forward because of the prolonged conflict due to Naga political issue. He also said that the other factor was excess of departments and establishments in the state which stood at 74 as compared to other North Eastern states-- Assam 50 departments followed by Mizoram 49 while Tripura has the lowest with 42 departments. He said that Nagaland was the second-highest in the country after Uttar Pradesh with maximum offices. Kikheto further pointed out that one of the major factors that was draining the State’s resources was over employment (See table). Giving a comparative data, he said as on March 31, 2002 there were 95325 government employees, which gradually increased to 124855 by March 31, 2020.

DEFICIT FOR LAST 8 YEARS OVER EMPLOYED: GOVT EMPLOYEES FOR THE LAST 19 YEARS

This is it!

guarantee improvement of one’s health. Besides damaging health of liquor consumers, it destroys economy, relationship and spiritual health of society and family as well, it said. While considering all the effects of alcohol in human kind, AGNSC said, as Christians, the holistic approach to tackle the menace should be through physical, mental, social, economic and spiritual with much prayer. AGNSC said it firmly stood by Nagaland Joint Christian Forum (NJCF) and the stand of other stakeholders to strengthen NLPT Act.

DIMAPUR, MAR 12 (NPN): Reminding all that there is no scope for complacency, despite declining trend in Covid-19 cases, Health & Family Welfare (H&FW) department stressed on the need to continue wearing mask in public places and getting inoculated against Covid-19. At this stage of transmission, H&FW said using face mask in public places and Covid-19 vaccination was crucial to avoid more deaths or hospitalizations. Meanwhile, H&FW in its weekly bulletin released on Saturday informed that 28 new Covid cases were detected from 2027 samples tested during the week

colleague Jaiveer Shergill appealed for reform and warned against “sugar-coating” the loss. Some of the dissidents met at veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s home Friday evening and reportedly discussed the way forward, expressing dismay at the Congress leadership for not taking any corrective steps to revive the party. They also reportedly expressed concern that the report of the committee formed to evaluate the losses after the last round of assembly poll defeat in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry were not even discussed in the party.

DIMAPUR, MAR 12 (NPN): Joint Coordination Committee of Villages (JCCV) for Dimapur district has once again reminded the state government to rectify the December 20, 2021 notification and place 51 villages, that have been listed, to be under Dimapur district and not Chümoukedima district without delay. According to JCCV convener L.K. Swu and co-convener Tsithrongse, the committee during executive emergency meeting held on March 12 reiterated and reaffirmed that it would leave no stone unturned to realize its objective of continuing to remain with Dimapur district instead of merging with the newly created Chümoukedima district. JCCV warned that failure on the part of the government to act within March 2022, would compel them to launch series protests including indefinite hunger strike from first week of April.

WEEKLY DATA OF CONFIRMED CASES & DEATHS 22.5

NEW DELHI, MAR 12 (AGENCIES): The directorate general of health services on Saturday wrote to the National Board of Examinations (NBE), asking the test body to declare revised results of NEET PG 2021 after the government decided to reduce the cut off by 15 percentile across all categories. “After due discussion and deliberations, it has been decided by the MoHFW in consultation with NMC with prior approval from Hon’ble HFM to reduce the cut-off by 15 percentile across all categories,” wrote the directorate general. Following this, the qualifying percentile for general category may be reduced to the 35th percentile, for PH(Genl) to 30th percentile and for

K Y M C

832

787.5

DEATHS

675

591

582

18

507

15

15

450

446 403

12

359

13

12

358 311

7.5

8

225

8 180

5

145

3

6 5 142 137 4 122

7 4

94

21-27 Aug

4-10 Sep

18-24 Sep

2-8 Oct

(March 5-11), while the weekly sample positivity rate witnessed a slight increase-from 1.0% to 1.4%. There was no report of Covid-19 deaths during the week. Even as the sample positivity rate remained below 5% for the past three weeks,

16-22 Oct

30-5 Nov

225

223

6 112.5

3

68

3

67

56

1

7-13 Aug

337.5

305

5

0 24-30 Jul

562.5

570

520

after incurring the biggest losses that it had seen in decades. Addressing the nation, Zelenskyy asked Russia to uphold the ceasefire so that evacuations from Mariupol could successfully be carried out. Peace talks still on: Peace talks between Ukraine, Russia continue via video conference. Among the top priorities is expanding and setting up humanitarian corridors, especially for the city of Mariupol, reports The Kyiv Independent.

13-19 Nov

3

2

2

54

34 16 19 9 27 1 0 Dec 8-140Dec 27-3 Dec 0 11-17 Dec 25-31

the positivity rate in three districts witnessed a slight increase—Wokha (from 0% to 3.8%), Kiphire (0% to 2.3%) and Dimapur (1% to 2%). In a brief about the Covid waves that hit Nagaland— 23% of symptomatic cases were classified under

3

2

55

1

22-29 Jan 5-11 Feb

3 22

28

19-25 Feb 05-110Mar

0

“severe category” in the first wave, 27% in the second/ delta wave and 13% in the third/ Omicron wave. State logs 2 fresh cases: Nagaland on Saturday recorded two fresh Covid-19 cases from Dimapur, taking the total caseload to 35447.

reserved category (SC/ST/OBC) 25th percentile. In view of this, it said: “You are requested to kindly declare the revised result and send the revised result data of the newly eligible candidates to the office of the undersigned at the earliest.” According to health ministry officials, the decision was taken in consultation with National Medical Commission (NMC) in view of approximately 8,000 seats still remaining vacant even after two rounds of all India and two rounds of state quota counselling. “The move aims to prevent seat wastage. With this reduction in percentile approximately 25,000 fresh candidates can participate in the mop round of ongoing counselling,” an official said.

UGC to allow experts without PhD to teach

NEW DELHI, MAR 12 (PTI): The University Grants Commission (UGC) has plans to introduce a system under which industry experts can teach as full-time or part time faculty members in central universities, according to an official. It has also been proposed that the experts will be eligible for teaching in universities without a Ph.D or NET qualification. The official said special positions -- professor of practice and associate professor of practice will be created. Under the proposal, experts who are willing to teach can be hired as

full time or part time faculty members depending on what the university needs, the official said, adding that those who have retired at 60 will also be eligible for these positions and will be able to work till the age of 65. This came up for discussion at the meeting of the UGC chairman with the vice-chancellors of central universities on Thursday. The UGC will form a committee to look into how this can be done and it will submit its report, the official said. There are also plans to set up a portal that will act as a single point for those willing to apply to a university.

No compromise, firm on eliminating proxy teachers: SKK NMA welcomes resolution on ULB Staff Reporter

“Hope these cart stalls will not leave us abandoned and hopeless.”

CONFIRMED CASES

24 732 21

Russian military have now started wearing a distinct yellow band in an attempt to infiltrate and mix in with Ukrainians who wear the bands for easy identification and to avoid “friendly fire”. To counter this, Ukraine has now shifted to blue- the other colour of their bicolour flag. Even cars are now being marked with blue tape. Russia sending new troops: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday claimed that Russia was sending new troops

JCCV threatens to NEET PG 2021: NBE reduces hold hunger strike cut-off by 15 pc for all categories

AGNSC against lifting NLPT Act Masking, Covid-19 vaccination crucial: H&FW DIMAPUR, MAR 12 (NPN): The Assemblies of God Nagaland State Council (AGNSC) has expressed strong opposition to the proposed move to lift the Nagaland Liquor Prohibition Act (NLPT) Act 1989 and called for strengthening the Act. I n a p r e s s n o t e, AGNSC superintendent Rev. Tusaya Kath while acknowledging the concerns raised by the state government on the possible loss of revenue and anti-social elements/syndicates procuring spurious liquor—affecting consumers’ health, said that consumption of alcohol whether good or of inferior quality does not

Civilians practice how to handle a firearm at a military training exercise in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine on March 11, 2022.

DIMAPUR, MAR 12 (NPN): All Sumi Students’ Union (SKK), which had served a one-month deadline on the school management committees (SMCs) and headmasters of government schools in Sumi inhabited areas to “eliminate” the culture of proxy teachers, Saturday affirmed to take the matter seriously. Addressing media persons here at Hotel Saramati, SKK president Katho P Awomi informed that

Newly elected team of SKK office bearers. (NP)

the newly elected team of office bearers (2022-24) during its first meeting held on March 11 resolved to seriously take up the issue of proxy teachers and ensure that the government terminate the services of such teachers.

Asserting that SKK would not compromise on the mater, Katho questioned as to why a government appointed teacher should involve in placing a proxy, hampering the careers of the students. He said if a teacher,

by placing a proxy, was not keen on being at a particular place of posting, he/she ought to resign on moral grounds and allow other capable individuals to take over the responsibility. Further, Katho said SKK was also against the involvement of government teachers in acquiring contract works (both government and private), involvement in NGOs and political parties. Quoting from the bible “No man can serve two masters”, Katho main-

DIMAPUR, MAR 12 (NPN): Naga Mothers Association (NMA) has welcomed the March 9 resolution to hold the urban local body elections with 33% women reservation. In a press note, NMA expressed gratitude to the chief minister, UDA chairman, deputy chief minister, leaders of tribe organizations, GBs, civil societies and political parties and hoped that the long overdue municipal polls will be held peacefully to ensure development of the towns and (Cont’d on p-8) municipals.

tained that government appointed teachers should stick to their designated profession of teaching and not get involved in doing contract works. This, he said would hamper the process of delivering quality education to students. Katho said SKK would also be conducting surprise checks on government departments and educational institutions under Sumi inhabited areas to ensure that all employees were regular at work.

Clarifying that since they had already withdrawn the petition in 2017, after the written agreement by the State government to hold the Municipal polls, NMA said they were no longer the petitioners in the ongoing case. However, NMA said Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), India’s largest human rights organizations, impleaded as the petitioner. NMA expressed gratitude to PUCL for their legal intervention for Naga women’s constitutional rights. K Y M C


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