Correspondent
Miffed by state government’s failure to fulfil its six-point charter of demands, the Eastern Naga Students’ Federation (ENSF) Monday announced launching of an indefinite agitation at the State capital Kohima starting April 21, 2022.
The federation, which held a crucial meeting in Kohima on April 8, had unanimously resolved to proceed with “further course of action”.
Addressing a press conference at DUDA guest house here on Monday, ENSF president Chingmak Chang, said that even after waiting for more than a year, the government has failed to give any positive response.
He said the federation had asked the government to incorporate the exempted eight departments and posts under the purview of Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB), but the government has not met the demands till date.
Besides not fulfilling the demands, he said the two points were not raised even once during the meetings between ENSF and the committee formed to review ENSF demands.
Chang pointed out that having run out of all options and waiting long enough, the federation was now compelled to initiate the democratic form of agitation.
He stated that the sole purpose of constituting ENSF was to encourage meritocracy and discontinue backdoor appointments. However, Chang said that by not including those two genuine demands, the whole purpose of having an NSSB would be defeated even before the board began functioning. He disclosed that the proposed agitation was in continuation of ENSF’s five-day agitation that was previously launched in all the Eastern districts.
He said the federation was equally serious with its demands and would not concede unless the government comes out with a positive and concrete response to its demands.
ENSF president also clarified that the federation was not against the functioning of NSSB and that the only contentions were the modalities of the board.
Former president of ENSF and now advisor, Sepini L Sangtam, supplementing Chang, said the call for agitation was a general appeal to all the Nagas since the demands put forward by the federation was not just for the Eastern people but for benefit all the Nagas. He said ENSF had registered its displeasure with the reply given by the government during the meeting between the two parties then and there.
Asked about the proposed agitation, Chang said ENSF held a meeting with all its seven federating units and unanimously decided to go ahead with the agitation. He said that more than 1,000 volunteers were expected to participate.
Asked whether it was expecting any representatives from other student bodies, Chang said they could not go and lobby around for support. However, he said that since the demands were genuine, they expected the right-thinking citizens to come forward and support them.
Sensing the need to allow NSSB start functioning as soon as possible so the youth could benefit from it, he said ENSF had agreed to the government’s request for a comprehensive review on the 45 percent reservation for Eastern Nagas issue.
He cautioned that if the government failed to heed to its demands, the federation would go all out until all its demands were met.