Dimapur, April 26 (MExN): The Business Association of Nagas (BAN) has demanded that cadres of the NSCN (IM) refrain from harassing entrepreneurs while appealing law enforcing agencies to be more proactive.
The BAN brought to light an incident that occurred on April 20 wherein a cadre from the NSCN (IM) led by a supervisor allegedly checked shops run by Naga entrepreneurs, namely Daily feed, Clothing World, Hot Topic, Liz’s studio, American boutique, The Blossom, The Shop and Furtados.
The Association accused the cadres of objecting to there being MRP tags on imported products and no MRP tags on local products, and then threatening the shop owners with Section 420 IPC for price manipulations.
As per a press release from the BAN’s media cell, the shop owners were summoned on April 21, 10.00 am, at a restaurant below Hotel Crown in Nagarjan Junction and a “penalty” of Rs. 50,000 was imposed upon the “defaulters.” On “defying to pay”, and “on request not to impose such unreasonable penalty, they reduced the demand amount to Rs 20,000 which was to be submitted the same day before 2.00 pm or face back a listing (sic.) of the shops through daily papers,” informed BAN.
“The harassment went on” and on April 22, the cadres allegedly visited the shops again and “threatened the shop owners and employee, using abusive languages and un-parliamentary words, threatening that if they don’t comply they will face dire consequences. Subsequently and unfortunately, out of fear two shops put their shutter down,” claimed the Association.
The BAN reminded that there is no pricing policy in Nagaland State. “An imported product with a price tag of foreign currency like Baht and Dollar etc. will not be sold in Nagaland unless it is converted into Indian currency. Likewise, locally produced goods will also have to be tagged or untagged as per the convenience of the seller and producer as Nagaland is not a regulated and controlled market but free and competitive market,” it explained, therefore demanding expediency on the behalf of cadres before taking such steps.
