Meets with delegation of Central Naga Tribes Council
KOHIMA, JUNE 3 (MExN): Nagaland State Chief Minister, TR Zeliang today urged the importance of withdrawing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed against the Nagaland State Government’s efforts to carry out oil exploration and extraction.
“If we can’t fight for, protect what is legally ours today in our lifetime, future Naga generations will curse us,” the CM said while meeting a delegation of the Central Naga Tribes Council (CNTC) leaders this morning. He requested the CNTC leaders to create awareness about the “negative ramifications the PIL would have on the land and resources which belong to the Naga people.”
The CM explained the tussle which went on between the Ministry of Petroleum, Government of India and the Nagaland State Government over exploration and extraction of petroleum and natural gas in the State. “
Whereas the Ministry of Petroleum had said that it was unconstitutional for the State Government to frame our own Rules & Regulations on Petroleum and Natural Gas quoting the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act, 1948, we argued that the 13th Amendment of the Constitution of India, December 1963 by which Article 371 A was INSERT IGNOREed into the Constitution and Statehood for Nagaland was created, had, in effect, over-ruled the 1948 Act,” the CM said. The CM reminded that he had written to the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, last September after the Ministry put up for auction two oil blocks in Nagaland.
Informing the Union Minister that the Nagaland government has framed the Nagaland Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulations 2012 and the Nagaland Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules 2012 in accordance with Article 371-A(1) (a) of the Constitution of India, and already invited Expressions Of Interest from interested oil companies, and is in the process of allocating the oil blocks in Nagaland; the CM said that opening up oil fields located within Nagaland to competitive bidding by the Government of India is not appropriate.
He also said that such a decision by the Government of India at this juncture would have an “adverse impact on the on-going peace negotiations to resolve the Naga political issue, which is in an advanced stage now.”
“A clear definition of the subject matter relating to ownership of land and its resources in Nagaland as mentioned in Article 371 A of the Constitution of India is one of the key issues to be resolved in the Naga political dialogues,” the CM had said.
Accordingly, the matter was kept in abeyance with the arguments of the State Government being scrutinized by the Government of India.
However, the CM lamented that a tribe Hoho had filed a PIL in the Court and the matter was shifted to the legal arena, where the State Government’s efforts to carry out oil exploration and extraction had been stalled.
The CM also expounded on the importance of Article 371 A, saying that Nagaland is “most fortunate to have specific mention in the Constitution about protection of the traditions, cultures and religious practices of the Nagas and more importantly, assurance of ownership of the land and its resources.”
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