Dimapur, April 15 (EMN): Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) has on Thursday termed the consultative meeting with various apex tribe organisations on Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) a ‘total sham’ on the part of PDA government, while it also demanded to implement the commission’s report with cut-off year as on December 1, 1963, rather than engage in distractions and delaying tactics to prolong its stay in power.
“It also represents the directionless objective of the PDA government that is unable to conclude and implement what it started off nearly two years ago when it constituted a Commission on RIIN headed by Mrs Banuo Z Jamir,” a NPCC’s statement through its communication department stated.
Since the Commission on RIIN, during the course of its assigned work, had carried out extensive consultations with various stakeholders of Nagaland to compile and complete its report and already submitted to the state government, NPCC felt that there is no reason for further delay in taking a decision on the report.
It stated that convening another consultative meeting on April 16 after the Commission on RIIN had submitted its report was akin to putting the cart before the horse and another attempt to delay and deny justice to the people of Nagaland.
“PDA government should not attempt to override the interest of the people by imposing a ‘cleverly worded resolution’ to shelve implementation of RIIN and tacitly shift responsibility on the stakeholders invited to the meeting,” NPCC said. It also urged the stakeholders comprising various tribe hohos, who are being invited to the meeting, to be very careful of the government’s intention and not succumb to theatrics that would be rolled out.
“The failure of the PDA government to even invite consensus from other political parties in the state on RIIN speaks volumes about their hidden agenda that is detrimental to the people of Nagaland. In its lust for power, the PDA government is prepared to appease and open floodgates for all outsiders to settle in Nagaland,” NPCC alleged.
Stating that the founding fathers of the state were farsighted enough to draw up protective systems for our people, it lamented that the present government was already dismantling the very protective systems that have sustained our way of life and gave us a unique identity as a state within the Indian union.
In the light of the above stated circumstances, NPCC has urged the PDA government to implement the Commission’s report on RIIN with cut-off year as on December 1, 1963, rather than engage in distractions and delaying tactics to prolong its stay in power. It further stated that the interest of the people of Nagaland and its future generations cannot be bartered or sacrificed for the interest of PDA government.
