Urges ENPO to participate in ULB polls
State cabinet has clarified that the reason behind the discussion of ENPO’s demand for Frontier Nagaland Territory (FNT) getting stagnant was because the latter had questioned the authenticity of the draft proposal handed over to the state government by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Addressing a press conference at the secretariat here on Thursday, minister for power and parliamentary affairs, and state government spokesperson, KG Kenye, clarified that the latest controversy between ENPO and the state government erupted after the former refused to accept the draft proposal as an official letter from the MHA and accused the state government of manipulating the document from the chief minister’s level.
“We call it a working paper, some call it a draft but it is an official letter received from the MHA where a draft proposal containing certain points that surround the demands made by ENPO to the government of India were the main contents of this draft. ENPO had refused to accept the letter in spite of the ENLU legislators persistently informing them that the Draft Proposal in question was authentic,” Kenye said.
On receiving the letter, he disclosed that the chief minister had a consultative meeting with the legislators from the eastern region. At the meeting, the chief minister handed out draft letter from MHA to the convenor of Eastern Nagaland Legislators Union (ENLU) sometime in the latter part of December 2023, Kenye said.
He said that the draft was supposed to be discussed along with their other members of the ENPO and all relevant organizations representing that region. “So unfortunately matter could not be taken up for discussion at their level which was very necessary because it pertains to the sharing of power if tomorrow things unfold as per their aspirations the power sharing had to be there about their representatives. The first thing is it deals with power sharing, then the rest could be discussed further. But since it got stuck from the beginning on the question of its authenticity, I believe no further discussions could take place,” Kenye said.
He pointed out that Thursday’s Cabinet meeting discussed FNT issue and also ENPO’s call to abstain from the upcoming ULB polls. Kenye clarified that no quarters had any misunderstanding or misconceptions on the entire process of ENPO’s demand. Instead, he said it was the State government that initiated the issue by recommending it to the MHA more than a decade back. Since then, he said things have been working in perfect tandem and there were no misunderstandings at any point in time. He said that initially the state government was not party to the talks and it was a direct meeting between ENPO and MHA since 2011.
Kenye said it was just a few months ago that the state government had come into the picture after the state government paid a visit to Delhi and interacted with the MHA and Union Home Minister himself. He said it was conveyed that the state should also be taken into confidence and should be a tripartite talks. “So a tripartite talks proposal was made by the state government in October last year following which they reciprocated and the MHA has after that taking our CM into confidence and some correspondence has been established since then,” Kenye disclosed.
On the issue of ENPO’s call for abstention from ULB polls, Kenye conveyed State government’s request to ENPO to review it call for abstention. Kenye said ULB elections was something that the Nagas have been anxiously waiting for the past two decades. He pointed out that ULBs were welfare and development-oriented councils and which were semi-autonomous body for local self-government to manage their own affairs at their own levels, to help facilitate and usher in developments in the respective municipal and town councils.
“The government has its role to play here in as far as constituting this bodies are concerned but because of certain problems we are not able to set this process for more than two decades and finally we have come to stage where we have cleared all the hurdles and about to start the process of constituting this councils. I don’t know why this has to be seen as a means to register their resentment and their protest on their demands which already is under process at a higher level,” he added.
He said the ULB elections were to do with the grassroots level developments and it was for the upliftment of the citizens at that level. Therefore, he said the cabinet has once again decided to request the ENPO and all the other concerned organizations to reconsider their decision.
On the issue of scrapping Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the India-Myanmar border, Kenye said the issue was thoroughly debated in the assembly and finally passed a resolution asking the Government of India to review their decision to scrap the FMR.
Asserting that the state government was very firm on its stand, Kenye said “we have learned that government of India has taken up this matter and is under active consideration.”
In this regard, the government spokesperson has requested NGOs and CSOs to be patient and wait since this is matter was being considered and hopefully the issue would be dealt with by the Centre in a positive manner.