The Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority – FNTA will have 62 members, among them 40 will be elected.
It is also made clear that 20 MLAs from the eastern Nagaland region will be ‘ex officio’ members but “without voting right”.
The revised Bill on FNTA says:
- 20 elected MLAs of Nagaland Legislative Assembly falling in FNT area shall be ex-officio members of FNTA without voting rights.
There shall be 40 constituencies covering the FNT region for electing members to the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority. Each constituency shall be a single member territorial constituency.
The draft law also makes it clear that the overall superintendence, direction and control of elections to the FNTA shall be vested in the State Election Commission.
The Bill says, among other things:
There shall be an Executive Council of the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority (FNTA) consisting of not more than 9 (nine) members.
The executive powers of the FNTA shall vest in the Executive Council. It is also made clear that the Chief Executive Member (CEM) and the Executive Council shall hold office as long as they enjoy the majority support in FNTA.
The Chief Executive Member shall be the Chairman of the Executive Council and shall preside over the meeting.
The Bill also says the CEM shall have the status of a Cabinet Minister in the state of Nagaland for protocol purposes.
The Deputy Chief Executive Member shall have the status equivalent to Cabinet Minister and other Executive Council Members equivalent to the Minister of State for protocol purposes within the FNT.
The Interim Council shall continue to function for a period not exceeding one year from the date of constitution or until the first FNTA is constituted under this Act, whichever is earlier.
The 17-member interim body will have 13 members, three MLAs from the region and one MP (Rajya Sabha).
These four members will be ‘advisors’ to the interim body.
On the Powers and Functions of the FNT, it is stated that:
Subject to the general policy of the Government, the FNTA shall:
(1) Formulate integrated development plans for the FNT area;
(2) Implement scheme and plan for the FNT area.
The FNT shall have the power, subject to the provisions of this Act, to make laws, rules, regulations, orders to be made applicable within the FNT with respect to all or any of the matters enumerated in the first Schedule.
With regard to the legislative powers, however, it is made clear that “until assented” to by the Governor and published in the official gazette of the state, such law (cleared by FNT) shall have no effect.
Moreover, Resolution for a new law cleared by FNT will have to be sent to the state Government, which will submit with its comments to the Governor for his assent.
The Bill also states that the Nagaland State Government shall appoint an officer of the IAS cadre – preferably of the rank of Additional Chief Secretary, but not below the rank of Principal Secretary to the Government of Nagaland subject to availability of officers, to be designated as the Chief Executive Secretary (CES) of the FNTA.
Interestingly, there is also a clause which says that the CES shall be posted by the State Government in consultation with CEM of FNTA.
All requisite administrative structure shall be created under CES to function as the Secretariat to FNTA.
There shall also be an Additional Commissioner (District Administration) who shall be posted in the FNTA Headquarter in consultation with CEM of FNTA.
It is also stated that Departments within FNTA shall be headed by officers of appropriate rank posted by the State Government, having regard to functional necessity and administrative convenience.
For Major Departments, Joint Director/Additional Director level officers will be posted in FNTA Headquarters for coordination.
Recruitment to Grade III officers shall be done through NPSC/NSSB, as the case may be, for the entire State. But the FNTA shall have powers for rationalization/redeployment of Grade III posts within FNTA with concurrence of the State government.
Nirendra Dev
New Delhi
(The views expressed are those of the writer and not of the newspaper)
