Dr Toshimsnen Ozukum
HoD Retired, Directorate of Municipal Affairs, Nagaland
The Government of Nagaland by a notification appointed five of us from five different departments and declared State Guests to visit any State in India to collect all relevant documents on the functioning of Municipality.
The Committee headed by the then Minister of Local Self Government late Rokhonecha first went to Chennai and met the State Election Commissioner who welcomed the Nagaland delegate very warmly.
His impression was that Nagaland is a beautiful garden and we all broke into laughter. He called his officers and instructed his Officers to provide all documents on the conduct of Municipal Election.
Thereafter the Committee went to West Bengal and visited Kolkata Municipal Corporation and interacted with the Officials and collected all the required documents. Due to heavy Official works, the Minister had to go back to Nagaland.
The team visited Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and interacted with the Officials of the Municipal and Town Councils similar to Towns in Nagaland.
By and by, the team came back to Nagaland and drafted the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2001. It was passed in the Legislative Assembly and printed in the book. Till such time, only ad hoc Town Committee for smaller Towns and Town Committees for larger Towns were in existence.
Therefore the Government decided to conduct the first Municipal Election in 2003 and successfully elected the Ward Councilors by observing all the Democratic norms.
A capacity building workshop for the elected Councilors was organised in Dimapur where all the elected Councilors participated with great enthusiasm
The government also nominated some prominent persons including women.
The second Municipal Election was due in 2008. However, due to the 33% women reservation, the civil societies in Nagaland protested against reservation as it was detrimental to the customs and usage of Naga people in the decision making.
However, since it was passed in the Assembly, the government decided to conduct the Municipal Election with an odd number of Wards reservation for the women candidates. The first Municipal Election with 33% women reservation was announced by the State Election Commission to be conducted in Mokokchung Municipal Council on a trial basis. Nevertheless the citizens of Mokokchung Town protested not only against the 33% Women Reservation but also against the Municipal Taxation on land and building mentioned in the Municipal Act 2001 with the justification that in Mokokchung District there is no government land and all the land belongs to community or private individuals and so government should not impose any tax on land and building belonging to private individuals as it infringes on Article 371(A). Thus, the second Municipal Election was cancelled and till date the Municipal and Town Councils in Nagaland are look after by the ADC SDO (C) and EAC which is in addition of their normal duties.
In order to carry on the administration of the Municipalities, the government once appointed Advisors from all the Wards in all the Municipalities, however, the functioning of the Advisors were not in conformity of the functioning of the Employees of the Municipal and Town Councils and the employees protested against appointment of the Advisors on the justification that the revenue collected by some of the Advisors were not deposited in the account of the Municipal Councils and thus reduced the revenue and consequently were not able to pay the salary of the employees.
Consequently the government terminated the services of the Councilors.
From time to time the government of Nagaland constituted a Committee headed by the Development Commissioners to revise the Municipal Act 2001. Nevertheless, due to complexity of the contents of the Municipal Act, 2001 various Committees could not do any revision.
Lastly, in 2017 the government constituted another Committee headed by the then Nagaland Commissioner as convener and I as the member Secretary. The Committee convened all the stakeholders and tribal Hoho representatives and held the meeting in the Nagaland Civil secretariat Conference Hall and note down all the suggestions and started the Revision which is not yet completed.
During the first Assembly of the present Government in 2018, the Government has given assurance on the question whether the present government is contemplating to revise the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2001 which is not yet done.
As one of the Architects of the Nagaland Municipal Act,2001 and official visited the Wokha Town Council to collect the opinion on the 33% Women Reservation. I still remember the French quotation quoted by one of the retired Secretary of Government of Nagaland which I reproduce here: “Sad is the home where the hen crows” unquote. Naturally only the cock crows but if the hen crows it shows bad omen. The conclusion of the Wokha meeting and all the opinion of the general public is that it is too early for the Nagas to bring women in the decision making body by reservation. The all Ward Union of Mokokchung Town suggested to let the Women contest in the Municipal election and even if all the sets in the Ward are won by the women candidates and run the affairs of the Municipal Council they will happily accept.
In conclusion, I suggest that the government should activate the constituted committee in 2017 or include the member Secretary in the Committee recently constituted headed by the Chief Secretary not only to discuss the 33% Women Reservation but also to revise the 20 years old Municipal Act and conduct the Municipal Election so that Nagaland can avail the basic and performance grants under 15h Finance Commission for the ULBs which has been submitted during my time. Without Municipal Election Nagaland may not get the performance grants and without Revision of the Municipal Act 2001 there may not be any Municipal Election.
