Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, JUL 18 (NPN): The Centre has sought one to two weeks to respond to the Nagaland government’s proposal to grant legislative powers to the proposed Frontier Nagaland Territory (FNT), state deputy chief minister Yanthungo Patton said on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters after returning from Delhi at Dimapur airport, Patton said a state delegation led by chief minister Dr. Neiphiu Rio, along with cabinet ministers, met Union home minister Amit Shah, Union home secretary and other senior officials to discuss the FNT issue.
Patton, who also holds the home portfolio, said the state government had already conveyed its final position to the Centre on transferring legislative powers to the proposed FNT.
“Whatever was discussed and finalized by the state government has already been shared with our Union Home Minister and his officials regarding granting legislative powers to FNT. Only that department will be transferred to FNT and no other department,” he said. According to Patton, the Union home minister and senior officials requested the state government to wait for “one week or two weeks”, after which the Centre would communicate its decision.
IED blast probe to be handed over to NIA: Patton announced that the state government has decided to hand over the investigation into the July 13 IED blast at Chümoukedima ‘A’ to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Responding to a query on whether the state possessed the technical expertise to investigate such incidents, Patton admitted that Nagaland lacked the required scientific and technical infrastructure.
“The state government has taken a decision that we will hand over the case to NIA,” he said.
The blast claimed the life of an Assam Rifles personnel and injured four others.
CPO protest, oil exploration: On the Chakhroma Public Organisation’s (CPO) agitation over the Maova village issue, Patton said the matter had not yet been discussed by the state cabinet as most ministers, including the chief minister, had been out of station.
“Since we were all out of station and now we are all coming back, after reaching Kohima we will discuss the issue,” he said.
However, he declined to indicate whether the government would respond to the CPO’s demands soon, saying the cabinet was yet to deliberate on the matter.
On the issue of oil exploration, following the Assam government’s decision to place its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the public domain, Patton said the Nagaland government would first hold discussions with civil society organisations before taking any decision on making similar documents public or discussing the matter in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly.