Our Correspondent
Kohima | March 16
A discussion on matters of urgent public importance for short duration under Rule-50 pertaining to the demand for Frontier Nagaland by Eastern Nagaland People’s Organization (ENPO) was figured at the ongoing 11th session of the Eleventh Nagaland Legislative Assembly here this morning and the discussion will continue till Saturday.
Raising the discussion, MLA C.L. John said ENPO submitted a memorandum on 25th November 2010 to the Prime Minister of India, demanding a separate Frontier Nagaland State encompassing four districts of Mon, Tuensang, Kiphire and Longleng citing grievances on issues of socio-economic development.
A copy of the said memorandum was forwarded to the State government by the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs on 8th December 2010 for comments of the state government.
He informed the House that the matter was discussed in the cabinet on 18th January 2011, in which the cabinet reiterated the resolution passed in the state assembly demanding integration of all contiguous Naga inhabited areas under one administrative umbrella and appealed to the ENPO to withdraw their demand in the larger interest of the Nagas.
“The cabinet ordered constitution of a committee under the chairmanship of Chief secretary, Nagaland to examine demands and grievances contained in the memorandum submitted by the ENPO to the Prime Minister of India. The Committee submitted its report on 23/5/2011,” MLA John said.
Further, he said the Cabinet during its meeting on 23rd July 2011, after deliberations of recommendations, findings and reports from various committees and sub-committee, proposed formation of Autonomous Council/Authority comprising of the four districts viz Tuensang, Mon, Longleng and Kiphire.
In explanatory note, he said the decision was conveyed to the GoI and intimated to ENPO. He added that the offer of the State government was not accepted and the six tribes of the Eastern Nagaland had organised rallies in respective headquarters on 20/9/2011.
He said despite all the above mentioned efforts of the state government to redress the grievances of the people from the four districts, “this very important issue confronting issue confronting the Nagas still remains to be resolved,” and hence felt the need for discussion of the issue on the floor of the House.
MLA K.L. Chishi participating in the discussion attributed the failure of resolving ENPO issue to the successive government. He opined that legislators and bureaucrats need to re-examine and introspect their commitments and sincerity towards the backward areas with special reference to ENPO. He also emphasised on infrastructure and human resource development as two important aspects of development.
MLA Tokheho also shared his concern and opined that the ENPO issue needs to be addressed with commitment and sincerity. 'We should ponder and see where the failure lies so that we will be able to live together as we have been for so many years', he observed.
MLA Longon who also participated in the discussion, voiced his concerned for proper implementation of the 25% job reservation for the ENPO people. He further sought the support and cooperation of the bureaucrats/technocrats to look into the plight of ENPO, stating that the elected members along could not address the ENPO issue.
Deliberating on the discussion MLA Chuba Chang said that the Eastern Nagas are not against any member of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly or not any Naga individual or tribe as a whole. He said that the reason to why the demand by the ENPO arises is because of culmination of long pending issues. 'May be we did not take the issues seriously', he added. He expressed that if the Nagas work in the spirit of brotherhood the problems and issues of the Eastern Nagas will be solved.
Agreeing with Chuba Chang, Minister for Forest M.C. Konyak said that there is not anti Naga feeling with the Eastern Nagas. However with passing of time and lack of development the feeling of discrimination arose among the Eastern Nagas. He said that there is still room to erase the feeling of discrimination and continue to live together.
MLA S.I. Jamir while sharing his views said that if one takes political mileage out of the ENPO issue the problem would still persist. He called on the legislators to put party aside and sink in the differences to sort out the problem once and for all. MLA C. Apok also said that before we pay a heavy price, all of us have to see that unity prevails.
(With inputs from DIPR)
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