Tobu District Demand Committee hopeful of positive response from Nagaland government

Dimapur, Jan. 27 (EMN): The people of Tobu and Moka have expressed hope that the government of Nagaland, under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, would fulfil their decade-old demand for upgrading Tobu ADC headquarters to a full-fledged district.

In a press release issued on Thursday, the Tobu District Demand Committee (TDDC) stated that the Tobu sub-division shares about 30 km of International border with Myanmar and majority of the villages are located up to 190 km away from the district headquarters, thus “causing administrative inconvenience, infrastructural and staffing gaps, lack of service delivery system, gaps in medical emergencies and poor economic development”.

To fill these gaps, the committee stated that the state government posted a deputy commissioner in the sub-division as early as 1987 but the civil society organisations in the area placed a proposal to the government for upgrading it to a district headquarters considering public grievances like the distance from Mon headquarters, sharing of border with Myanmar and “developmental deficiencies such as education, health care service and problem in effective administration linkage to headquarters”.

The TDDC went on to say that the proposal for Tobu district was made after consulting with the Konyak Union (KU), which subsequently wrote a letter to the chief minister on October 15, 2021, expressing the need for creation of a new district by bifurcating Mon.

Stating that the question of bringing a division among the Konyaks does not arise, the committee said: “Yesterday we stood as Konyak, today we live as Konyak and tomorrow we will die as Konyak.”

It went on to state that its demand was based on genuine need and not with ulterior motives or to tarnish the image of government. While expressing hope that the aspiration of Tobu and Moka public would be fulfilled, the TDDC also thanked the nine Konyak legislators, KU (Mon), Konyak Students’ Union, KNSK Mon, Mon District GB’s Association, KVCU Mon, and KBBB Mon for supporting the Tobu district demand.