Peace negotiator #A K Mishra to head central panel on #ENPO, #Frontier Nagaland.

 Peace negotiator #A K Mishra to head central panel on #ENPO, #Frontier Nagaland. 

Others are Mandeep Singh Tuli, IB Jt. Direcor & A K Dhyani, Director #NorthEast Division. 

Team to visit ENPO region including #Pangsha bordering #Myanmar Dec 16-18

The Eastern Nagaland People's Organisation (ENPO) leaders who held the meeting with Home Minister Shah in Delhi on December 6th have appreciated the central government's quick response in setting up the panel.  

At the meeting, it was stated that the committee will be set up by December 15th but in this case the panel has been set up well in advance and even dates for their visit has been finalised, they say.

"This is a welcome move and we also appreciate that the centre seems to have done some homework already on ENPO and our demand for a separate state," an ENPO leader said.

The seven tribes from the region - Konyaks, Sangtams, Changs, Phoms, Khiamniungans, Yimchungrus and Tikhirs have stayed away from this year's state government sponsored annual tourism extravaganza of Hornbill Festival hosted in the state capital.

Eastern Nagaland comprises six districts - Tuensang, Mon, Shamatore, Longleng, Noklak and Kiphire.

Mr Amit Shah held the much awaited crucial meeting with ENPO leaders on Dec 6 in presence of sitting BJP MP (Rajya Sabha), S Phangnon Konyak and two former MPs Asungba Sangtam and Wangyuh Konyak.

 

Mishra's presence in the meeting also made it amply clear that the Home Ministry understood very well the intricacies of the ongoing peace parleys with the NNPG and the NSCN-IM and how all these are inter-linked.

A delegation of NNPG led by N Kitovi Zhimomi met Mishra in the national capital on December 8 to fine tune a possible draft for a final peace pact.

Mishra reportedly has lately adopted a 'more crystal clear' stance vis-a-vis his interaction with the stakeholders. The Centre has categorically rejected the demands for a separate Naga flag and Constitution as articulated by the NSCN-IM.

Surveys in the 1990s had revealed that along the entire eastern belt of Nagaland (encompassing the six districts), runs a rich vein of coal, limestone, nickel, marble, cobalt and magnite.

But most of these have remained untapped due to a plethora of reasons.

The people from the region have grievances of being not treated properly by the mainstream Nagaland.

The charge is, however, denied by the mainstream politicians.

Tuensang-Mon region had joined Nagaland state since the 1960s when the 16 Point Agreement was inked between Naga public leaders under the banner of Naga People's Convention (NPC) and the Government of India.

No leader from the region could become Chief Minister while Chongshen Chang (from Tuensang district) had become deputy Chief Minister in 1990 under the ministry headed by K L Chishi.

As the Pradesh Congress chief Chingwang Konyak had missed chief ministership in 1993 when he lost assembly 

polls from Wakching and later he was not given a ticket for Tehok assembly seat when P V Narasimha Rao

was Congress president and Sushilkumar Shinde was AICC general secretary in-charge Nagaland. 

Chingwang had protested and resigned as pradesh chief and also subsequently quit Congress and for some

time had joined the Indira Congress (Tiwari) group led by N D Tiwari and Arjun Singh.

Incidentally, Chingwang now heads the NDPP -- the political party of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who is heading

an opposition-less NDPP-BJP-NPF regime.

According to clause 10 (b) of the 16 Point (or Statehood) Agreement, there was a provision for setting up of a  Regional Council with elected representatives from all the tribes and the Governor may nominate representatives to the Regional Council. It was also stated that the "Regional Council will elect members of the Naga Legislative Assembly".

The demand for a separate state [Frontier Nagaland' comprising Eastern Nagaland had gained momentum at a time when the NSCN-IM was negotiating with the Government of India for 'unification of all Naga contiguous areas'.  Nagas reside in parts of Myanmar and also in states such as Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The centre has earlier ruled out possibilities of redrawing the boundaries of these three northeastern states.  

The Nagas of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have lately supported the initiatives of umbrella organisation NNPG to resolve the Naga issue with the government of India through dialogues and discussions.

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