• Ao organizations resolve to tackle alcohol flow
• Polling station will not be allowed to open if a
voter is not given Election Voters’ Photo ID Card
Mokokchung | January 28
Different sections of the Ao society led by the church, the Ao Senden (Ao Hoho), women organizations, village councils and others today converged at Impur, ABAM Mission Centre, and deliberated on the topic of ‘Liquor Prohibition and Clean Election’ at a consultative programme.
The consultative programme was convened by the ABAM Social Concern Committee. (ABAM or Ao Baptist Church Council is the apex church organization of the Ao Baptist churches.)
Resource persons, Excise Commissioner Maongwati Aier and Advocate Benja Namo, enlightened the congregation on the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act and also on Clean Election. The most important feature of the day was the group discussion and the ‘Finding Committee Report’ and its resolution to carry out a set of works towards this end.
The ‘Finding Committee Report’ (written in Ao) stated that in the present generation “every believer” should play a responsible role, and resolved that every Ao organization or society should start a “collective mass movement against socio-political evils” in the land. This task was entrusted to the ABAM Social Concern Committee. Expressing serious concern about alcoholism in the society, the meeting resolved that different churches under ABAM would start a concrete ministry to help alcoholics in their respective churches. The meeting also resolved to push for the Nagaland State Government to include a subject in the school curriculum on alcohol and drug abuse and its consequences to educate the children.
Taking cognizance that the implementation of the NLTP Act since its enactment 24 years ago has become more challenging, the meeting also resolved to demand that the Government recruit more excise personnel to implement the Act more effectively. The NLTP Act was passed by the Nagaland Government in the year 1989, which declared Nagaland as a ‘dry state’. 24 years since its enactment, Naga society continues to battle with the issue of alcoholism and flow of alcohol in Nagaland State.
On ‘Clean Election Campaign,’ the meeting resolved that if a voter is not given ‘Election Voters’ Photo ID Card,’ the polling station would not be allowed to open. The meeting also resolved that the church and different social organizations would work in cohesion to educate citizens on their “birthright.” Further, the meeting resolved that those propagating crimes against women would be forever treated as outcasts from the society.
