Amend Nagaland Municipal Act first before conducting ULB election, says AKMWP president

Our Correspondent
Kohima, March 11 (EMN): Barely two days after Nagaland passed a resolution to conduct elections to the urban local bodies (ULB) in the state, Association of Kohima Municipal Wards Panchayat (AKMWP) President Thejao Sekhose said that the Municipal Act 2001 should be amended first before holding election.

The decision to hold ULB election with 33% reservation for women, as per the 74th Amendment Act of the Constitution of India, was taken at a consultative meeting called by the state government with mass-based society organisations, church bodies, tribal hohos, political parties, NGOs, and prominent personalities on Wednesday.

“We feel that ULB election should be conducted in most urgent way but the thing is that Nagaland Municipal Act should be amended first,” Sekhose said at an event in Kohima on Friday. He added that “once ULB candidates comes up, they are surely going to follow one Act which without amendment, if we follow that Act, our future generation, our children will be penalised”.

We are not talking about 33% reservation for women now; we are saying let the act be amended first, he said, adding that the percentage of reservation can be discussed later.

He alleged that the government had taken the decision on the pretext of Centre not providing funds because of not having ULB and that leaders and civil societies from the urban areas were not called to the recent consultative meeting.

Sekhose said that Nagaland Municipal Act is a copycat of Gujarat’s Act but the way women are treated in Nagaland and other states is not same. “We are not saying we are better but tradition is as such that we respect woman, and now basing on those realities in the mainland, they have made Municipal Act of that particular state,” he stated.

‘That type of act cannot be practiced out here in Nagaland because our culture and tradition is different and our system is different,’ he added.

Claiming that the content in Nagaland Municipal Act may not directly infringe Article 371 (A) but directly infringes on the Nagas social practice, he reiterated that the Act be amended wherever needed by a Board or Committee before the elections are held.

When asked about the portions in the Nagaland Municipal Act 2001 that needed to be amended, he replied: “We cannot say anything, because we want a committee be set up who are experts– because we are all Nagas; if you read the Municipal Act, you’ll come to know that it is not apt for the Nagas be it man or woman”.

He further informed that all the 19 Municipal Wards of Kohima will be holding a general meeting (to discuss the matter).

It may be mentioned that the first and only election under the Nagaland Municipal Act 2001 was conducted in 2004 in the state without reservation for women, and it functioned till 2009.

The state government announced polls to the ULB (with 33% women reservation) in 2017 but failed as violent protests erupted, resulting in loss of two lives besides damage to public and private properties.

Following the recent order of the Supreme Court to conduct the ULB election within six weeks and to enforce reservation for women in Nagaland, the state government called for a consultative meeting with various stakeholders to discuss the contentious issue at the State Banquet Hall in Kohima, on March 9, wherein the house strongly supported holding of ULB elections with reservation for women.