Kohima, June 19 (DIPR): Commissioner and Secretary, Power and Team Leader, NEPED, Temjen Toy, IAS, today called for increased awareness on ‘environmental justice’ to protect lands of local people and check damage caused to land. He was delivering the inaugural address at the ‘Training to increase local level awareness on Environmental Justice’ at the administrative Training Institute, Kohima.
About 80% of Nagaland population depends on agriculture, there is an urgent need to understand the various factors that put tremendous pressure on the land, Temjen Toy said adding that the size of available land remains the same even as population increases . “Local people face the burden of land when big projects come up, there is the need for the people to be empowered through information and knowledge to make the right choices” he asserted.
Stating that we should never be complacent about happenings around the world, Temjen Toy said that we should ‘think globally and act locally’. He added that ‘we should be empowered enough to prevent harm being done to us’. He expressed appreciation to the representatives of the districts at the training, adding ‘we as a people in Nagaland can take action before harm is done to us’.
Director of the Missing Link (TML) Guwahati, Amba Jamir said that the main objective of the training is to gather stakeholders in Nagaland and introduce the concept of environmental justice to them. He said that the training would focus on what strategies can be followed and enable participants to reflect upon and assess our own community. He expressed optimism that this training would be the beginning of a ‘networking’ to address issues facing us.
The welcome address was delivered by Project Operations Unit (POU) member, NEPED, Vizonyü while Vengota Nakro, POU, NEPED chaired the session. Participants at the training include tribal Hoho representatives, representatives of NGOs, officials from various government Departments, village representatives and NEPED POU members.
The technical session of the two day training programme include presentations on ‘Conceptual and Historical overview of environmental legislation and its implementation, presented by Vincent Darlong, NERCOMP – IFAD, Shillong, Community participation for environmental governance and justice presented by APC, Alemtemshi Jamir and a documentary show on Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.
Day two of the training will include presentations on Biodiversity Act and its relevance to environmental justice in Nagaland, by Ramesh Aima, CF (NTC), Kohima, environmental laws and legislations relevant to Nagaland by Tompok, Advocate and other presentations.
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