<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Autumn heralds the arrival of winter and so the next five months or so, would be a hectic period in Nagaland with wedding wheels already in top gear and soon to be followed by the week-long high-profile Hornbill Festival by first week of December and the never ending public and social programmes. From autumn through winter, the long seasonof festivity appear like sparks though they don’t actually light up the place but sentiments make up for the lacking.Hornbill festival was conceptualised in 1997 to coincide with the celebration of the 50th year of India’s independence. The state government then planned on having a similar annual celebration to mark 35 years of Nagaland statehood. To add some imaginative masala to the celebration, it was decided to fuse the tradition with contemporary form of entertainment- fashion show and some music and adventure sports thrown in between. The period of celebration from one day in 1997 has now taken a more expansive and expensive event that stretches anywhere from one week to ten days, depending on the mood and logic of the government bureaucrats. Organising the Hornbill festival has become the other most engaging official obligation of the government departments perhaps, next to the budget session. It is one thing for people wanting to have entertainment but should the government pick up the tab when so much remains to be done elsewhere-roads, power or public travel facilities? It is one thing for people wanting to have entertainment but should the government pick up the tab when so much remains to be done elsewhere-roads, power or public travel facilities? A lot of money is required to fund the programme and there are times when the government has had to beg, steal or borrow to ensure that the show must go on. For a carnival such as Hornbill where many government departments put up stalls or conduct some programmes and where the main focus is on promoting tourism; perhaps there is also need to bring the entire planning and processing under the lens of accountability and transparency. At every step and stage of the preparations spells money even till the conclusion of the events. For instance, the Hornbill stalls are allotted to entrepreneurs but there is no clarity as to the process of selection. Even with regard to the setting up of music systems, lightings and stage etc there is no clarity on who calls the shots and how are rates fixed? There are VVIPs and VIPs who are feted by the government at the latter’s expense. The lodging as well as food are done by some fortunate ones who seem to be so favoured in having VVIP patrons. To enlighten further on why this much is being mentioned would require no imagination. There are hundreds of local youths who are either trained or engaged in the specific business enterprises. These youths are looking for some break not primarily because it is an entitlement but because they have what it takes. Some are excellent bakers, cooks, event managers, experts in the field of sound and music system, videography etc. The state government could be doing the state, the people and especially these local talents a big favour if all the requirements are advertised in the newspapers both within and outside Nagaland. Considering that so much is being said about a progressive society, economic prospects and promoting Naga culture and tourism; the only way ensure that Hornbill sets the trend so that it ultimately becomes a PPP model, is to provide a level playing field through accountability and transparency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Festive opportunity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}