Following the visit of Union minister of state for petroleum & natural gas and labour & employment Rameswar Teli to Nagaland, a meeting on oil exploration in the State was expected to restart at bureaucratic level.
Confirming this to Nagaland Post, planning &coordination, land revenue and parliamentary affairs minister Neiba Kronu, who attended a meeting with Teli and his team of officials at Naithu Resort, Dimapur on Tuesday, said the meeting was positive. State minister Kashiho Sangtam too was present at the meeting.
He acknowledged that oil exploration could not be taken up in the State for quite some time, and said the meeting proposed resolving the issue soon.
Kronu said the State government made its stand clear that if oil exploration had to take place, it should be based on the Nagaland Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 2012 and should take into consideration the special provision of Article 371 (A).
He said the regulation mentions about share of royalty and royalty sharing in disputed area, where were pointed out to the participants of the meeting.
According to Kronu, the Teli acknowledged the land peculiarity of the State and expressed confidence that a breakthrough would be achieved on exploration of oil in the State.
He said Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) representatives, who too were present at the meeting, acknowledged the land ownership system in the State.
Mentioning that the meeting brought the stakeholders together, he said an Oil India Ltd representative had given power point presentation on exploration and production activities.
The meeting, which reportedly went on for almost three hours, was also attended by top bureaucrats of the State government led by chief secretary J Alam.
Amar Nath, additional secretary (exploration) in the Ministry of petroleum &natural gas, who accompanied Teli, also attended the meeting.
In his tweet, Teli said that the Centre was “committed to all round development of Nagaland and will take all possible measures for progress and prosperity.” Teli also met chief minister Neiphiu Rio and discussed several issues.
Rio also took to twitter and said that he was happy to highlight certain points of concerns. Rio was hopeful that the outcome of the meeting would be fruitful.
In another tweet, minister for soil & water conservation and geology & mining V. Kashiho Sangtam said: “We had a thorough consultative meeting for future exploration of resources, we hope & pray that this meeting will pave way to a prosperous Nagaland.”