Cabinet Minister and Spokesperson in the MDA 2 government, Paul Lyngdoh, underscored the urgency of reform in the state’s Autonomous District Councils (ADCs), warning of financial collapse if corrective measures are not taken. “First and foremost, it’s very important to distinguish between voluntary funding and something that is mandatory. In this case, what the government has offered is a reform based bail out plan because at least a couple of these Autonomous District Councils are about to crumble financially if they carry on with the current style of functioning and revenue collection and overstaffing, they will collapse in three to four years,” he said.
Laying out the government’s conditions, Lyngdoh clarified, “So before we reach that point, this is an offer that you reform. For this reform, we are supporting you this much financially, for this particular reform, we are supporting you this much, for you to augment your revenue collection, the Government is supporting you this much. So it is reform based you have to tick the right boxes. It’s not a blank check that we do the ADCs.”
He further questioned the existing system of overstaffing. “We tell them that for instance why does an ADC need to have the staff strength of 1500, this is no rational, there is no justification, you cut it down by half. So to do that, Government will support you so that you scaled out that manpower.”
Calling the cabinet’s decision a “lifeline,” Lyngdoh asserted, “I reiterate that it is a very positive move on the part of the state Government because as you know a lot of what the ADCs do also depends on the support that the state government gives them, the revenue share from minerals, for instance. So, we are interdependent and in this case, wherever we find that the ADCs are about to reach a point of collapse, we would like to offer them a lifeline and this is the lifeline that the cabinet has offered.”
