Every year, Nagaland comes to a standstill after Christmas and New Year. Not only do offices are closed throughout January, even traffic on the roads is thin.
The state government had declared Christmas holidays from December 23 to 25, but till date, offices have remained closed, including the state secretariat. The state government had even issued a “no work, no pay” notice, but even that did not help.
Since December, attendance in the offices has remained very thin, thereby disrupting normal functioning.
December is a festive month that begins with Hornbill Festival, which is regarded as the festival of festivals in Nagaland.
This year, the state government also hosted the second North East Agri-Expo at Dimapur from December 15 to 19 where the entire state machinery was pressed into service.
“The state government lacks the will to make employees attend their offices,” a senior state government officer told The Telegraph. He said when the state secretariat itself is deserted there is no hope for other offices to function, not to talk of offices in the districts.
He said in Nagaland, employees come to office around 11am and leave by 1pm, but the state government has totally failed to discipline its employees. “This is the usual practice in Nagaland, unlike in other states where the employees work till 5-6pm,” he said, adding that the government needs to streamline its departments in big way. “Our people are still having a Christmas hangover and that’s why they are not attending office,” he said in a lighter vein, adding that this hangover would continue throughout January.
Kenny Peseyie, a prominent citizen of New Market, Kohima, said the fault lies with the state government, as it has “miserably” failed to discipline its employees. “It’s very sad that our state government has no will to pull up employees who always defy its orders,” he said.
Kenny said Nagaland, which has the highest number of government employees in the country, has failed to deliver goods to the people. “They are simply siphoning off government’s money without doing anything,” he added, while pointing out that when government employees in the state capital are so irregular, what would be the condition in the district-level and sub-divisional offices.
In the recent past, several organisations, including tribal hohos and student organisations, had come out in protest against irregularities of government employees in offices and demanded stringent action against errant employees.
Interestingly, December and January are also months for marriages, churches programmes, student organisation meets, tribal hoho meets, sports meets and so on and so forth. And people would be busier than ever in attending such programmes.
Sources from other districts confirmed that all offices are still closed and even offices of deputy commissioners are almost deserted.