Dimapur, June 21 (MExN): As was reported earlier in this paper, the delegation of Naga organizations from the Naga areas in Manipur met with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patel and Minister of State Oscar Fernandes today to hand over the Hill House tax for the year 2006 amounting to Rs 14, 23,425 from 94,894 Naga households in Manipur. However, the Home Minister did not accept the tax amount “since it is a state subject”, according to a joint release issued by Azang Longmei, General Secretary of the United Naga Council (UNC), Manipur and Grace T Shatsang, President of the Naga Women’s Union, Manipur (NWUM).
Nevertheless, it was informed that the Home Minister has acknowledged the issues being faced by the Naga people as “most genuine” and assured the delegation firmly that he would do his utmost with the Manipur State Government to resolve the issue without compromising the historical rights of the Nagas.
The delegation comprises of the UNC, the NWUM, the All Naga Students’ Union Manipur, the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights and other tribal leaders.
Terming the meeting as “historic” the statement reiterated that the delegation’s undertaking is to uphold the November 4, 2005 Naga Peoples’ Convention (NPC) Declaration at Taphou Village which resolved to launch a non-cooperation movement against the Government of Manipur State. “The non-cooperation movement includes five point resolutions which were resolved in the wake of organized violence and communal campaign by the dominant Meitei community against the Nagas and the sanctioning and glorification of the same by the government of Manipur” according to the statement.
The anti-ceasefire agitation against the June 14 Bangkok Agreement 2001 which agreed ceasefire ‘without territorial limits’ and the subsequent declaration of June 18 as ‘Manipur State Day’ are unique examples of intolerance shown by the Meiteis and the Manipur Government to undermine and erase the historical rights of the Nagas, it added.
Relative to the non-cooperation movement, it was also informed that the ANSAM in support of the UNC’s resolution has already sought the affiliation of schools and colleges in the Naga areas of Manipur to the Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE) and the Nagaland University.
“The ANSAM has decisively surrendered the prescribed textbooks of the Board of Secondary Education Manipur (BSEM) beginning from Class VIII to X in the first phase. Altogether 156 private schools have started introducing the NBSE’s prescribed syllabus from the academic session 2006” it stated.
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