DIMAPUR — The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has urged the state government to immediately direct the deputy commissioner of Kohima to withdraw the latter’s notification on publication of the draft updated list of non-Naga local indigenous Nepal/Gorkha residents under Kohima district.
The council in a press release stated that its attention has been drawn to the DC’s notification, which mentioned that the qualifying date for inclusion in the updated list is “up to June 11, 2016.”
Terming the notification as “disturbing,” the NTC stated that it has substituted the constitutionally delegated Government of Nagaland’s standing notification dated April 28, 1978, which mentions December 1, 1963, as the cut-off year for the purpose of indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland.
Pointing out that the report of the Commission on Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) is yet to become a law, the council alleged that “an individual as authority in the government, without mentioning RIIN, wants to arbitrarily enforce in advance the Part-D of RIIN report.”
Part-D of the RIIN report under ‘Recommendations’ stated that for proof of permanency of residence, an individual should have his or her name in the “Electoral roll from 1963 -2019, with a personal declaration of not having been enrolled in any other state.”
Terming the DC’s notification as “highly irregular” and hurting the sentiments of native people, the NTC also questioned, “as to under what State’s policy, Act and Law of the land has he been directing this exercise authoritatively.”
Conducting a census of the Nepal/Gorkhas who settled in Nagaland on or before December 1, 1963, maintaining digital records and updates of their offspring and descendants is encouraged, but not otherwise, it stated.
“In fact, the non-Naga Nepal/Gorkhas settled in Nagaland prior to 1-12-1963 had on many occasions expressed desire that the afore-mentioned cut-off year be maintained in Nagaland. The state of Nagaland is not a dumping territory where everyone could become Indigenous on entry. This belief is wrong and unacceptable,” the council iterated.
The NTC further insisted that the state government should incorporate the constitutionally delegated notification dated April 28, 1978, maintaining the cut-off year of December 1, 1963, for the purpose of Indigenous Inhabitant in the state as “Recommendation No. 1,” for the sake of peace and tranquillity in the state of Nagaland.
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