NTC urges state govt. to give necessary ratifications to Nagaland Municipal Act 2001

Dimapur: The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) on Sunday urged the state government to listen to the “voices of the people” and give necessary ratifications to the Nagaland Municipal Act 2001 to erase “every detrimental provision”.

In a press statement, NTC said under Article 371(A) of the Constitution of India provides special legal status to Nagaland to enact its own congenial laws in consonance to the customs and traditions.

“As such, Nagaland does not need to copy such Municipal Laws framed and used by those municipalities having no such political and legal status as ours. It is therefore imperative that Section 120 (1) (a) contentious land and building taxes in the photocopied Municipal Acts be reviewed and reframed according to our local and traditional conveniences through repeal.

“It is also unadvisable for the govt. of the day to use the vocabularies as ‘omission’ and ‘deletion’ in its attempt for pacification. Besides every Law and its necessary amendment is enacted by the Legislative Assembly alone but not by rhetoric,” read the statement.

It pointed out that the “overlapping reservation” under Sec. 23 B of the Act is against the spirit of democracy.

 “Quote: Sec. 23B Reservation of offices of Chairpersons in Municipalities for SCs, STs, and women”. “The offices of the chairpersons shall be reserved for the (Scheduled Castes, is shown omitted by the third Amendment Act 2016), the scheduled tribes and women, as nearly as may be, in proportion to the number of seats reserved for them in the municipalities and allotment of such offices shall be made by rotation”.

“On the basis of this section, there is indication that women reservation for chairpersons is reservation upon reservation. When 33% women reservation is allowed with much apprehension on demerits, to keep the chairperson’s post reserved as reservation upon reservation is irrational and impractical,” it read.

It went on to state that Nagaland is a ST state and there is no provision of SC tribe in the state.

“Hence the very word ‘Scheduled Caste’ be completely removed from the aforesaid Act through Legislation,” it added.