Wages Of War-Jimi Dey Gabriel

Arpika

Hello every one the article is found in the last week edition of Tehelka http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ne130811WAGES.asp. The article talks about the insurgency in the Nagaland. Many groups sprouted in demanding autonomy, one of which is the Naga National Council (NNC) which fizzled out and broke into seven groups who are collectively called the Naga Underground(UG). What I read after this enraged me (and why I chose this article)because of the facts presented to me as well as the thought that how much more neglect will the North East states have to bear. This group has almost faded but it gave birth to 7 such groups and one of this is the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muviah) is said to be the at the top with the largest revenue(250 crore). The revenue? each of these seven groups have a systematic taxation policy on the people of Naga like state government, these taxes are low but if collected accross the state make up a substantial amount. For eg:- Rs.1 per sqt ft per grup, 2,24,914 houses in Naga generate Rs.16 crore. Every government employee has to pay their quota to these forces and failling to do so would be the death of a family member or even the entire family, therefore the officials inflate expenditure and give the money to the groups and pocket some for themselves. This gets even more tragic when its mentioned that according to the budget reports of the groups that have been seized most of the money is spend on funding education, good? not really. The funding is made so that the students upon returning are "hounour-bound" to sign up into the UG. The groups are filled with students from Delhi University, Jamial Milia Islamia, Jawaharlal Nehru University and even IITians. Unemployment too sucks them into the UG and the cycle will continue for many generations, the article states that the only way stop this is for the people of Naga to stop helping and givin in to the insurgents.I hope you go through the article its eye opener ladies!until next time.