Our Correspondent
Kohima | November 24
The Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) today revoked a September 22 assembly resolution which had exempted Nagaland from the application of Article 243T of Part IX A of the Constitution of India.
This move has paved the way for the holding of elections to town and municipal councils in Nagaland with 33% women reservation. The elections are reported to be held in a couple of month’s time. The motion to revoke the 2012 resolution was moved by Parliamentary Secretary for Municipal Affairs, Economics & Statistics, R Tohanba and the House adopted the resolution today. Although no amendment was received by the Assembly, the members of the House voiced their opinions before the adoption of this resolution.
MLA Thomas Ngullie stages walkout
Opposing the government’s move revoking this resolution, MLA Thomas Ngullie staged a walk out from the session. He said that this move would go against the wishes of the Nagas. Thomas added that if the house had committed a mistake in 2012 “we should go back to the people and explain to them.”
Parliamentary Secretary for Higher & Technical Education , Deo Nukhu, Minister for School Education & SCERT, Yitachu, Parliamentary Secretary for Jails, Science & Technology, Hukavi Zhimomi, MLA Kaito Aye, MLA Mmhonlumo Kikon also voiced their opinions regarding the resolution passed by the House.
We are not doing any U turn: Tohanba
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Secretary, Tohanba stated that if the resolution was not revoked: “we will be giving an impression that we are against the Constitution when we ourselves incorporated all Constitutional provisions.” He added that “we will have difficult times in convincing the Courts in regard to the validity of our resolution dated 22.9.2012; we will deny ourselves the advantage of getting out of the protracted court case by making the case before the Supreme Court in fructuous by extinguishing the resolution by ourselves by revocation; we will have technical hurdles to conduct polls to the municipal and town council with women reservation when the resolution that denies women reservation is operative; and we will be denied precious resources from the Centre for local urban development if we do not conduct polls within the framework of Part IX A of the Constitution of India read with the State Act.”
Informing that the Constitution of India and the State Act are now intertwined and interdependent, Tohanba said: “We made a U-turn on this when we passed the Resolution on 22.9.2012. Now we are not doing any U-turn by aligning ourselves with the Constitution and the State Act as we have decided to conduct polls in accordance with provisions in the Court ordered State Act and thereby in accordance with Article 243T of the Constitution of India. By revoking the resolution of 22.9.2012, we are undoing only the U-turn we made in 2012 and by this revocation; we are not doing any U-turn.”
We will go ahead with elections: CM
“We will go ahead with elections,” Chief Minister, TR Zeliang said adding that people should get the benefit out of it and hoped that town councils would derive the facilities and go ahead with developmental activities.
On questions as to whether the absence of women candidates will allow male candidates to fill the vacancy, the CM clarified that in such cases, the government will issue fresh notifications and as such, men cannot represent the reserved seats.
He said that Nagaland was deprived of many developmental packages in urban local bodies as election could not take place for many years.
Nagaland Municipal (3rd Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed
The House also passed the Nagaland Municipal (Third Amendment) Bill, 2016 which was moved by Chief Minister, TR Zeliang. The statement of objects and reasons stated that after nearly a decade of debate and discussion on women reservation in municipal and town councils, the state government has finally decided to conduct polls to the municipalities in accordance with the provisions in the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2001 that includes one-third reservation for women.
It meanwhile acknowledged the concerns and discrepancies pointed out by tribe bodies with respect to non-compliance of the Act with Article 371 A (1) (a) of the Constitution of India in regard to levy and recovery process of taxes on land and buildings.
“Amendments have been accordingly proposed to the Act through this Bill,” informed Parliamentary Secretary for Municipal Affairs, R Tohanba.
NLA speaker adjourns session sine- die
After completing all the business listed, NLA speaker Chotisuh Sazo adjourned the session sine-die. The assembly started on Tuesday. Apart from passing the government resolutions/bills, the House also witnessed laying of papers/rules and presentation of assembly committee reports.
