With the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO) set to hold a public rally and shutdown on July 10, the Nagaland government on Monday announced that it will convene a special session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly to enact legislation for the constitution of the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority (FNTA) and appealed to the organisation to reconsider its proposed agitation.
The decision was taken at an emergency Cabinet meeting on July 6 attended by members of the Eastern Nagaland Legislators’ Union (ENLU) and senior state government officials, the Home Department said in a statement.
According to the government, the proposed legislation will include the necessary provisions to confer legislative powers on the FNTA in respect of the transferred subjects and departments under the authority, in consultation with and with the approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India, and in consonance with the Constitution.
The Cabinet also decided that a delegation led by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, along with members of the ENLU, will travel to New Delhi to seek the advice, approval and guidance of the Government of India on the proposed legislation.
The state government further requested the Centre to enhance the Rs 5,000 crore economic package promised under the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed on February 5 to at least Rs 10,000 crore to accelerate the development of Eastern Nagaland.
Reiterating its commitment to constitutional safeguards, the government stated that the provisions of Article 371(A) of the Constitution are “sacred and sacrosanct” and would neither be diluted nor altered in any manner.
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The statement also outlined the sequence of events that led to the delay in constituting the FNTA.
It said the Law and Justice Department drafted the FNTA Bill soon after the MoA was signed between the Government of India, the Government of Nagaland and the ENPO on February 5. However, during the Cabinet’s examination of the draft Bill, the Advocate General opined that legislative powers could not be conferred on the FNTA through a state law, as the State Legislature did not have the constitutional competence to transfer its legislative authority to another body.
The state government subsequently referred the constitutional issue to the Ministry of Home Affairs, while forwarding the draft Bill to the ministry in March in accordance with the MoA. However, before the Bill could be passed by the Assembly, the MHA informed the state government that the constitutional issue was still under examination and requested that further action be deferred until its legal opinion was finalised.
The government said the FNTA Bill, which had been introduced in the Assembly on March 26, was subsequently withdrawn after requests from the MHA, the ENPO and the ENLU to ensure that the provisions of the MoA were fully addressed in a legally and constitutionally tenable manner.
According to the statement, the response of the MHA on the constitutional issues raised by the state government is still awaited.
Maintaining that it remains committed to constituting the FNTA at the earliest within the framework of the Constitution, the government appealed to the ENPO to reconsider its proposed public rally and shutdown on July 10 in view of the latest Cabinet decisions and the steps being undertaken towards constituting the authority.
