Eastern Nagaland require special development focus: Dr. Jamir

Former Nagaland chief minister and former governor Dr SC Jamir on opined that the Eastern areas of Nagaland require special attention for development, which they lack in areas such as road communication, education and healthcare system.
In a talk with news agency ANI Sunday at his residence in Dimapur regarding the demand for a ‘Frontier Nagaland state’ comprising of eastern areas of the Nagaland, Jamir mentioned that formation of Nagaland was decided by the representatives of the then Tuensang Frontier Division and the then Naga Hills of Assam comprising of all 16 tribes of Nagaland, “who thought of having a separate state of its own.”
In pursuance of the decision of all 16 tribes, the state of Nagaland was created through unification of Tuensang Frontier Division and the Naga Hills of Assam. Dr Jamir pointed out that the eastern areas of Nagaland are going to be important in the coming days, when the Look East Policy or Act East Policy is fully matured. Therefore, “ we have to hasten the speed of development in those areas”, he said.
The veteran Naga politician pointed out that the eastern areas have remained unadministered for a very long time and that several issues need attention.
The veteran Naga leader recalled that the eastern areas were unadministered for a long period of time.
He said the eastern areas had a lot of problems in development, infrastructure, and administration. On the other hand, there has been significant development Mokokchung and Kohima districts, which were under the British administration, especially on the front of literacy. However, Tuensang Frontier Division (then under erstwhile NEFA) has remained isolated from the rest of the country.
Dr. Jamir held the Nagaland government responsible for not paying enough attention to the matter. The former four time chief minister felt that the matter would have been best handled if the Nagaland government had taken up the real problem of the ENPO during the past five or six year tenure. He said having Delhi talk over the issue with the proponents would not result in any concrete solution. Dr.Jamir lamented that the current coalition government has allowed the Centre to bypass it by allowing talks directly with eastern Nagas. He said the issue has to be dealt with by the state government since it is outside the purview of the Centre to involve with an internal matter of a state.
Dr.Jamir also said he has no idea if the centre is going to accede to the demand by ENPO for Frontier Nagaland State.
Dr.Jamir said maintained that the Centre ought to ensure that Naga unity and integrity of the state ought to be maintained and that special development for the eastern area could be pursued within a constitutional framework.