Independent candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, Hayithung Bill Lotha has declared that his topmost priority and agenda would be to take up the issue of ‘Frontier Nagaland Territory’ if elected.
In a statement, Hayithung said that to corroborate his commitment and seriousness for immediate granting of FNT by the Central government, he was ready to “embark on a fast-unto-death till FNT is granted by the Central government with great powers & functions.”
Hayithung said he was ready to sacrifice his life till the last drop of his blood for the future generations and the greater good of the much deprived, downtrodden, and ill-treated Eastern Nagas of Nagaland.
Hayithung said, if elected, he will “move heaven and earth, fight vociferously and roar like a Lion” inside Parliament, till the day ENPO demand for FNT is granted by the Centre.
He acknowledged that ENPO demand was most genuine as the region had been neglected and sidelined for the past six decades since Nagaland Statehood was declared.
Hayithung said that his main political strategy would be to “pressure and force the Central government to immediately accord and grant the Frontier Nagaland Territory with full political, financial and administrative autonomy” and appointment of a Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) equivalent to the rank of chief minister, directly reporting to the Governor’s office without any other official intermediary.
He was of the view that FNT should be directly under Central government funding pattern and directly monitored and supervised by the Central government.
He accused the state government for dilly-dallying and not being serious in playing a politically dynamic role to materialize the Frontier Nagaland Territory.
Hayithung, therefore, appealed to the people of Eastern Nagaland to “vigorously check and strongly stop some vested interest Eastern Naga leaders who may be interested only after money, power and material wealth, selling the birth right of Eastern Nagas to get the frontier Nagaland Territory.”