Mokokchung, 26 March (MTNews): The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has urged the Nagaland Government to listen to the “voices of the people of the State” with regard to the Nagaland Municipal Act and address the demands of the Nagaland Tribes Apex Hohos and civil society, and give necessary ratifications so as to erase every detrimental provision from the Act.
A press release from the media cell of the NTC informed that it held its Executive and Advisors meeting on 25 March and deliberated at length on the ongoing imbroglio of the Nagaland Municipal Act 2001 as amended up to 2016 and resolved to appeal the government to relook into the people’s grievances “as brought up in public domain on the taxation and reservation issues.”
While acknowledging that Nagaland cannot remain “pampered indefinitely,” the NTC said that the people of Nagaland need to train how to pay due tax to the public exchequer “as much as we expect amenities to be provided by the established government.”
However, it also pointed out that Article 371 A of the Constitution of India provides special legal status to the State of Nagaland to enact its own congenial laws in consonance to Naga customs and traditions.
As such, it said, Nagaland does not need to copycat Municipal Laws framed and used by those municipalities having no such political and legal status as the Nagas. “It is therefore imperative that Sect 120 (1) (a) contentious land and building taxes in the photocopied Municipal Acts be reviewed and reframed according to our local and traditional conveniences through repeal,” the NTC said.
It further said that it was unadvisable for the government of the day to use vocabularies such as “omission” and “deletion” in its attempt for pacification. It also said that every law and its necessary amendment are enacted by the Legislative Assembly alone “but not by rhetoric.”
The NTC also pointed out that the “overlapping reservation vide Section 23B of the aforesaid Act is against the spirit of democracy.”
It further quoted Section 23B of the Act which deals with reservation of offices of Chairpersons in municipalities for SCs, STs, and women. The section reads: “The offices of the Chairpersons shall be reserved for (Scheduled Castes, is shown omitted by the third Amendment Act 2016), the Scheduled Tribes and Women, as nearly as may be, in proportion to the number of seats reserved for them in the municipalities and allotment of such offices shall be made by rotation.”
The NTC said that on the basis of this section, there is indication that women reservation for Chairpersons is “reservation upon reservation.” “When 33% women reservation is allowed with much apprehension on demerits, to keep the Chairperson’s post reserved as reservation upon reservation is irrational and impractical,” it contested.
“More so, Nagaland is a Scheduled Tribe State. There is no provision of Scheduled Caste tribe in the State of Nagaland and hence the very word ‘Scheduled Caste’ be completely removed from the aforesaid Act through Legislation,” NTC said.