KOHIMA, Jan 22: The Nagaland government on Wednesday said it is hopeful that the Centre and the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO) will make sincere efforts in resolving the demand for Frontier Nagaland Territory (FNT) comprising six eastern districts of the state.
ENPO, a Naga organisation that has been demanding a separate state comprising those six districts, last month said it has “temporarily” accepted the Centre’s proposal for a mechanism in which the region will be granted a certain level of autonomy.
A tripartite meeting on the formation of the FNT was held in the northeastern state on January 15 in the Chumoukedima district.
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Senior minister and state government spokesperson K G Kenye said the matter is “progressing well”.
“We hope that both sides (Ministry of Home Affairs and ENPO) will be sincere in their approach and reasonable, because all that we aspire for may not be given at one go,” he told reporters here.
It may take some time for both the Centre and the ENPO to assess the issues that have come up in the January 15 meeting, Kenye said.
“Without the financial, executive and legislative autonomy, we cannot sign any agreement,” ENPO president A Chingmak Chang had said after that day’s meeting.
The state government has already gone through the proposals made by the MHA and they are alright, he said without elaborating.
After receiving the demands from the ENPO, the MHA has selected some of them for discussion, which can be accepted, said Kenye.
The power and parliamentary affairs minister said that the state government is also in touch with the other territorial councils like Bodoland in neighbouring Assam as to how they are managing their systems.
“However, Nagaland is a little different from those councils. And the ENPO has stated several times that they do not want the proposed FNT to come under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution,” he said.
The Sixth Schedule allows the constitution of Autonomous District Councils in northeastern states like Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram for safeguarding the rights of tribal population.
Kenye said that the ENPO wants to retain Article 371A, the special Constitutional provision given to Nagaland and revert to the system under which the state was administered by a regional council between 1964 and 1974.
“We cannot 100 per cent replicate that because time was different then. But they are discussing something of that arrangement,” said Kenye.
Asked about the date for the next round of meeting, the spokesperson said that the state government wants frequent talks so that the matter could be finalized quickly.
Alleging that the Eastern Nagaland areas have been neglected in all sectors since the creation of Nagaland state in 1963, the ENPO has been demanding statehood starting September 2010.
Pressing for its demand, the organisation boycotted the Lok Sabha and Urban Local Body polls last year.
The ENPO is the apex body of the Naga tribes in six districts of Nagaland – Mon, Tuensang, Longleng, Kiphire, Noklak and Shamator.
These districts – Kiphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Shamator, and Tuensang – are home to eight tribes – Chang, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Phom, Sangtam, Tikhir, Yimkhiung and also a section of Sema. (PTI)
