After a prolonged standoff between the Eastern Nagaland Peoples Organization (ENPO) and the State Government, the Nagaland Government has announced that it is “now ready” to “recommend and forward” ENPO’s demand for a separate entity to the Centre.
According to Nagaland Minister KG Kenye, this proposal was made together by ENPO and the Eastern Nagaland Legislative Union (ENLU). “It (proposal) was pending because we wanted ENPO and ENLU to deliberate between themselves, and it happened in the past five weeks,” Kenye said.
He stated that the proposal will be “within Article 371 (A)” and “will not” be outside the state of Nagaland. “That spirit has been retained despite many synonyms,” he continued, adding, “Sixth Schedule has been ruled out.” It may be noted that the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution gives tribal areas in the northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram a degree of autonomy and self-governance.
It was made clear that the proposal will retain the “original regional council,” which is a component of Article 371 (A).
Nagaland Minister and Spokesperson CL John hinted at a sub-modality that may emerge. “Suppose my department, Environment and Forest – The State government will look after the district level and FNT will look into the community-conserved area or community reserved area in rural areas,” CL John explained.
He further elaborated, “In PWD, the National Highway will be looked after by the PWD (R&B), but the local, rural areas will be looked after by the FNT,” he continued.
The ministers asserted that there will be no bifurcation of any department. “It is just a high grade being created in the eastern area in their headquarters, wherever it falls,” the ministers clarified, adding that everything will be centralized in Kohima only. “They will be a part of our state and will continue to be.”
It was further added that everything will be followed as per the Centre’s guidelines. “Financial autonomy was also not mentioned in the draft,” the ministers added, hinting that the original document from the Home Ministry did not mention any of it.
As per a news report from AIR news, although financial autonomy was discussed, it will adhere to central and state guidelines. The ENPO region’s administrative structure will include a mini-secretariat.