Committee to submit memorandum to govt demanding review of Nagaland Municipal Act

DIMAPUR:

The Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) is set to submit a memorandum to the government demanding a review of the Nagaland Municipal Act 2001 before holding civic body polls in the state.

The decision was taken at a consultative meeting with 16 apex tribal hohos (bodies) and civil society organisations at the Naga Council Dimapur office and adopted a three-point resolution, on March 25.

Earlier on March 9, the government in a meeting with civil society organisations had resolved to hold the urban local body elections in the state with 33 per cent reservation for women and the resolution didn’t go well with the JCC, which the committee said “appeared to be unsatisfactory and inconclusive as a consensus opinion of all the stakeholders were not taken into confidence”.

As a part of the three-point resolution adopted at the Friday meeting, the JCC decided to spearhead the movement vis-a-vis urban local body elections as per February 7, 2017, resolution passed by all the tribal apex bodies and Nagaland Tribes Action Committee, till the legitimate demands of the Nagas are met.

The JCC also resolved to continue to pursue with the Nagaland government to declare the Judicial Inquiry Commission report on January 31, 2017, firing incident, in which two innocent persons were killed in Dimapur, and the report of the Cabinet Sub-Committee constituted in 2017 to review or amend the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2001.

It was also decided to restructure the JCC officials with the inclusion of presidents and secretaries of the tribal apex organisations as co-conveners.

The civic body election in February 2017, which provided for 33 per cent reservation for women, was opposed tooth and nail by Naga tribal groups. It led to violence in which two persons were allegedly killed in police firing outside the private residence of former chief minister TR Zeliang in Dimapur on January 31, on the eve of polling day. Violence also gripped the state capital, Kohima, with irate protestors setting ablaze the offices of Kohima Municipal Council and district commissioner.

Following the violence, Zeliang resigned from his post, ending more than two weeks of standoff with Nagaland Tribes Action Committee, which demanded his resignation over his decision to conduct civic bodies’ elections with 33 per cent reservation for women.