Shocked NTAC dubs Cabinet’s decision ‘sell out’ of Article 371(A)

Dimapur, Feb. 5: The decision of the Nagaland State Cabinet to recommend exemption, for Nagaland, from the Constitutional municipal provisions has been met with an acidic response from the agitating Nagaland Tribes’ Action Committee (NTAC): ‘Sell out of the Article 371 (A) of the Constitution.’

The community platform expressed shock over the decision of the state Cabinet to approach New Delhi to demand said exemption from the purview of Part IXA of the Constitution of India.

“The decision of the Nagaland Cabinet to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister to amend the Constitutional provision of Part IX-A of the Constitution of India has come as shocking news to the NTAC and right thinking citizens of the state,” the NTAC asserted in a press release on Sunday evening. The group’s Convener KT Vilie and Secretary CT Jamir appended the statement.
The NTAC stated that the people of Nagaland were aware that the Nagaland Assembly had been empowered to make laws and amend them ‘as per the need.’

“The Nagaland Assembly, being empowered by the constitution, has been using the Article 371(A) to enact laws like the Nagaland Municipal Act 2001 and other laws. Using the same power, it has been amending them as well,” the organisation stated. “What is most shocking now is, forgetting this fact for reasons best known to them, the Cabinet is reported to submit a memorandum jointly to the Prime Minister of India to amend the constitution Part IX-A through an ordinance.”

Describing this move of the Cabinet a “sheer mockery of the state assembly itself, the democracy of the state and the people of the state in general”, the NTAC pointed that worse still was that the decision was a “a total sell out of the Article 371 (A) of the Constitution.”

“This confirms further the urgency of the demand for chief minister’s resignation before further damage to the state is committed,” the NTAC retorted.

The committee has made a fervent appeal to government servants and the public in general to ‘continue to extend’ their cooperation to the ongoing agitations with a view to bring normalcy from the current situation.