Mizo govt justifies seeking assistance from 14th Fin Comm

Offering strong justification for seeking financial assistance from the visiting 14th Finance Commission to the tune of Rs 48,164.05 crore, Mizoram Finance department officials said the state required special attention, specially for infrastructure development.
The officials maintained that Mizoram was under insurgency for two decades which had shattered the social and economic life of the people in the state.
"Introduction of grouping of villages as a counter-insurgency measure during 1967 to 1970 involving 95 per cent of the then total population had lasting effects on the society and local economy," they said, adding increased under-productivity of jhum cultivation and perpetual curfew led to destruction of traditionally self-sufficient village economy.

The officials claimed that the Mizo people had not yet fully recovered from the impact of that blow and the issues related to violence have never been addressed properly.
Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla said, "I regret to say that neither any serious effort was made to understand the magnitude of post-insurgency fallout in the state, nor were we able to convince the central authorities of the underlying issues, perhaps due to lack of maturity in presenting our problems or else our voice was too feeble."
"How do I explain the fact that successive finance commissions have failed to properly appreciate these issues," he added.

The finance department officials pointed out that while the national road length was 96.57 per 100 sq km, the road length in Mizoram was only 35.28 and the per capita power consumption was 376.99 KW as against the national figure was 778.71 KW.
They also added that the percentage of jobless people was 55.64 during 2011 indicating the seriousness of the unemployment problem despite the state being one of the most peaceful ones in the country.