Naga People’s Front (NPF) president Shürhozelie Liezietsu on Sunday said Nagaland governor RN Ravi’s wrote to chief minister Neiphiu Rio on the law and order situation in the state for the sake of the suffering public and not for his own gain or interest.
Making his observations on the letter, Liezietsu said the governor has written the letter dwelling on the failures of the present government as he has a responsibility as the constitutional head of the state.
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The executive powers are vested in him and he will exercise this directly or through the officers subordinate to him in accordance with the Constitution, he said.
Liezietsu said the governor’s letter which appeared in local dailies on June 26 should not be a surprise to the people of the state.
It should not be a surprise to the chief minister either because the governor had urged him to take some action to contain the law and order situation as early as August 23 last year, he said.
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Liezietsu added that the state government was reminded again of the gravity of the situation on November 14 last year but nothing has been done.
“Therefore, the governor has regretted to say that his urging and advices have gone unheeded,” the NPF supremo said.
He said NPF secretary general Achumbemo Kikon, while participating in a TV debate on June 30, made the party’s views very clear that the Nagaland government or for that matter the chief minister should step down on moral ground when the law and order in the state has been declared collapsed by the governor.
“We will go one more step further that this government has failed in all fronts, including management of the economy of the state,” he said.
Saying that it may not be necessary for the party to go into details at the moment, Liezietsu said it will be prepared point by point if invited to do so.
Liezietsu also cited some examples of some recent statements issued by the concerned citizens of Nagaland to understand the mood of the people of the state.
He pointed out that the Dimapur Chamber of Commerce and Industries in its statement on June 23 accused some Naga political groups and their elements of forceful imposition and collecting taxes from shops and business establishments.
The trade body described the act as an “extreme form of taxation that would surely sound the death knell of the business community”, he added.
On the same day, Liezietsu said the Tutomi Gham Kughakulu Dimapur condemned the unlawful act of threat and intimidation meted out to a government officer by an underground outfit.
He said the public action committee of the Naga Council Dimapur in a statement expressed utter disgust and pain and strongly condemned the excessive spree of collection of illegal multiple tax from Dimapur traders by the Naga national political groups.
Quoting the committee, Liezietsu said the state government was not unaware of such activities and that its silence only revealed either its incapability or complacency or complicity with these elements.
He highlighted that the public of Nagaland are indirectly paying those taxes through the Dimapur traders as Dimapur is the commercial hub of the state.
Talking about extortion, Liezietsu said extortion has got nothing to do with the Naga political problem. Stating that the extortion is purely a law and order subject, he hoped no organisation will support it.
“There is no justification for extortion and this is one main point in governor’s letter,” he said.
On some organisations attacking the governor for using the word “armed gang”, Liezietsu asked, “why we ourselves are trying to interpret the phrase to let our national workers own it”.
“Why some underground groups have come out to own that phrase by themselves?” he also questioned.
He appealed not to mix up the Naga political problem and the failures of the present People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) government in the state.