Mokokchung, 3 May (MTNews): The NSCN-IM on Wednesday said that it is resolute on its stand that no exploration of oil and natural gas in Naga territories in any form shall be allowed until an honorable political settlement between the Nagas and Government of India is reached.
This was made known through a press release on Wednesday through its MIP, just weeks after the WC, NNPGs as well as several Nagaland civil society organizations demanded that the proposed agreement between the government of Nagaland and Assam for oil exploration be put on hold.
The NSCN-IM stated that the order issued by it two decades ago where it said that “no mineral wealth in Naga areas will be allowed for exploration and extraction until political settlement is arrived at” still remains valid even today.
“Therefore, no amount of justification in the name of mobilizing financial resources for development will stand to ride roughshod over the inalienable Naga people’s rights over their land resources,” the NSCN added.
In its statement, the NSCN-IM said that the Government of India has been casting “covetous eyes” on Nagas’ mineral wealth, particularly petroleum, ever since 1963 but the Nagas have defended its God given 600 million tonnes of oil and natural gas reserves.
It added that “no authority will be given the liberty to exploit so long as the Government of India continues to handle the Naga political issue with flattering and betraying fashion.”
The NSCN-IM also pointed out that the oil issue has come at the time when the Government of India is showing no sincerity and commitment to respect the historical and political rights of the Naga people as enshrined in the historic Framework Agreement of 3 August 2015 and accused the GoI for pulling the Indo-Naga political talks for more than 25 years on “flimsy ground of negotiating on the non-negotiable issue of Naga National Flag and Constitution.”
The NSCN-IM said that just like the Government of India attach huge economic significance to the mineral wealth, particularly oil and natural gas of Nagaland, the GoI should demonstrate the same degree of political commitment in a meaningful and credible manner to the Naga political talks and stated that “Priority has to be set in correct perspective.”
