Kohima, April 17 (MExN): The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of tribe Hohos met with the Chief Minister on April 16 at Kohima where the demand for total implementation of the Delimitation Act in the state was reiterated. While both sides were reported to have made their respective stands, no tangible resolution from the meeting could be elicited.
In the meeting, the JAC, a conglomerate of tribe Hohos of Wokha, Peren, Longleng, Kiphire and sub-division Tseminyu, made clear to the Chief Minister that the Delimitation Act should be implemented in the state on the basis of the 2001 census. The JAC reiterated that it would oppose any move of the state government not to implement the Act.
The JAC reminded that delimitation was undertaken earlier in the 1960s and the 1970s in Nagaland. When the Delimitation Act was implemented in 1972, Wokha and Phek “lost one seat each but no protest took place at that point of time,” the JAC asserted while querying “why all these fuss now when the Delimitation Act on the basis of the 2001 census was about to be implemented in the state.”
The state desires to maintain status quo in view of the ongoing peace process but the delimitation exercise has got nothing to with such processes, it was pointed out. “Even referring to Article 371A as a means to prevent implementation would have no point as the section was in connection with the land and resources and it again got nothing to do with the delimitation exercises,” the JAC members explained. Strongly refusing to retract the decision to oppose non-implementation of the exercise, the JAC expressed the hope that the next state general elections would be held after the implementation of the Act.
With inputs from NEPS
