Ahead of the Third Session (Emergent Session) of the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly scheduled to be held on November 9, the state government is likely to hold another round of consultative meeting to deliberate on the Nagaland Municipal Bill, 2023 before tabling it in the Assembly.
Informing this to media persons after nearly two hours closed-door meeting of the NLA Select Committee to examine Nagaland Municipal Bill 2023 at Police complex Chümoukedima, the convenor and deputy CM, TR Zeliang said that the committee would be holding another round of consultative meeting with civil society organizations (CSOs) and tribal hohos to finalize recommendations and resolutions to be tabled in the Assembly.
He said that the committee would then expeditiously examine and take a decision to submit its recommendations to the Assembly. This, he said, would facilitate the amendment of the Nagaland Municipal Act (NMA) 2023 and pass by the Assembly in order to pave way to conduct the elections to the Urban Local Bodies.
During the consultative meeting, Zeliang said the committee would explain the position of the state government so that a consensus decision would be arrived at.
He further emphasized the committee’s determination to move forward with the 33% reservation for women in ULBs. Zeliang viewed that even though the issue was still pending before the Supreme Court, delaying further would be detrimental to public interest. He, therefore, said that the state government has decided to proceed with women reservation.
Acknowledging concerns raised by several CSOs regarding land and property tax and opposition to the provision of having a woman as the chairperson, Zeliang assured the removal of land and property tax, so also the provision of reserving the post of chairperson for women was likely to be removed.
All these proposed changes would be explained to the tribal hohos and CSOs during the meeting, he added.
Further, Zeliang clarified that one of the main objectives of the Select Committee was also to ensure that the Women Reservation Act does not infringe upon Article 371 (A), adding that the after due validation, the committee resolved to proceed with the election along with the women quota.
He said Nagas have now understood the importance (of ULB election). “If we understand together, I think there should not be any issue,” he stated.
This was one reason why consultative meeting has been called, Zeliang said, expressing hope that “things would go smoothly”.
The select committee meeting was also attended by minister for Power and Parliamentary Affairs, KG Kenye; Rural Development & SIRD minister Metsubo Jamir; advisor Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Zhaleo Rio, advisor Agriculture, MhathungYanthan and chief secretary J Alam and other officials.