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Chief Minister TR Zeliang with others in front of the newly inaugurated Mangkolemba Town Council building at Mangkolemba on Friday.[/caption]
Dimapur, Dec. 9: Chief Minister TR Zeliang dismissed the apprehensions that reservation of 33% of the seats for women in Urban Local Bodies would infringe on Article 371 A and on Naga customary and traditional practices as “not true” while stating that Nagas will continue to follow the Nagaland Village Councils Act and reservation of 25% of funds of the village councils.
Zeliang reasoned that traditional Naga practices can be enforced even in wards and colonies of urban areas and maintained by respective ward/colony councils, according to a CMO release.
Addressing the silver jubilee celebration of Mangkolemba township and the inaugural programme of Mangkolemba Town Council at Mangkolemba public ground on Friday morning, the CM assured that the government will never impose tax collections on the urban bodies and that it will be left to the duly elected councillors to put forward proposals on how to raise resources for maintenance of offices and development of the towns and cities. He asked the people to be “more willing to pay their taxes and fees to the municipal and town councils so that enough resources could be raised for their common needs and facilities” which are not for the State or Central Government, the CMO said.
Stating that development boards for women are being implemented for more than 15 years or so, he asked, “If we say that men and women are equal and that women do not need reservation of seats, why is it that we have not had a single woman legislator in the Assembly for so many decades.”
He said his “Government has resolved to implement what was decided in 2001 and 2006” when Nagaland Municipal Act was passed and amended later to incorporate 33% reservation for women instead of waiting for the Court verdict.
“Let us not misuse Article 371 A but use it in the right perspective only,” he said.
Pointing out that development in towns and cities in the State has been adversely affected in the last ten years or so due to our inability to avail funds from the central Government since elections to the local bodies were not held, the Chief
Minister asked what would be the benefit of declaring townships if funds could not be availed for development and appealed to the people to let elections to the ULBs take place as scheduled which he said could be sometime in the latter part of January or early part of February 2017, the CMO said.
“It is not for anyone’s personal interest or gain that the Government has decided to go ahead with reservation for women in ULBs,” the Chief Minister said, and added that “due to non-holding of elections in our municipal and town councils, certain grants recommended by the 14th Finance Commission are not being released to us by the Government of India.”
“In villages, CGI sheets are distributed to villagers to ensure that all houses are tin-roofed, and in townships central programmes such as Housing For All and Housing for Urban Poor can be availed,” he said and appealed to all right-thinking citizens to fully support the decision of the Government to hold elections to municipal and town councils with 33% reservation for women for the benefit of small and medium towns which are not covered by the VDBs.
“It is easier to convince an ignorant person than to convince someone who is aware but refuse to understand,” he said and rued that certain people prefer to believe in fallacies even though they know the truth and tend to spread these fallacies trying to convince other people to oppose decisions of the Government.
Quoting a contestant in last evening’s Miss Nagaland Contest who termed Mokokchung as Land of Pioneers, the Chief Minister agreed with the quote saying the people of Mokokchung were pioneers in the field of religion, education and politics of the State, and went on to urge the people of the district to show the other districts how to march ahead with a positive mindset.
The Chief Minister also appealed to the people to cooperate with the authorities when surveys and schemes construction of roads are sanctioned by the Central Government saying land owners should not oppose highways to pass on through their land or jurisdictions.