Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation has asked the Centre to hold a high level meeting between the leaders of ENPO and the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to “discuss the long-pending issues of the Eastern Nagaland.”
According to vision communications, the ENPO delegation led by its president Pongom Khiamniungan including Toshi Wungtung and ENSF president Hawang T. Wangsha met union home minister P. Chidambaram and other senior government officials recently in New Delhi to convey the demands.
The delegation told vision communications that Chidambaram had “agreed” to their demands; however the report said, they were asked “not to be impatient and not to disrupt the pre-election preparation (Assembly elections),” schedule next year.
Talking to the Vision Communications the ENPO president said “we are exploited by the successive state governments as well as by the Centre. The day Nagaland attained statehood, our tribes were taken to Kohima for dance and other cultural functions while on the same night over 2,000 appointment letters were distributed to other major tribes. Discrimination has begun from that day itself. And even today it is continuing.”
He further said: “Since 16-point agreement was signed and the statehood was celebrated, we the six tribes, Chang, Phom, Konyak, Sangtam, Khiamniungan and Yimchunger belonging to Mon, Tuensang, Kiphire, Longleng districts and two subdivisions Noklak and Shamator were marginalised politically, socially and economically”.
He said “out of the 72000, class-I and class-II gazetted officers in Nagaland, we the six tribes have only 642 officers. Of them 519 are regular and the remaining officers are adhoc despite the fact that we the Nagas in these four districts and two subdivisions together constitutes about 50 per cent of the total population, Konyak being the largest tribe in the state.
Out of over two lakh state government employees in the state, he said “we cover a mere three per cent which itself is a shame for the rulers.”
Pongom further justified revealing the statistics where “Of the 72,000 odd gazetted officers, 30,000 belong to Ao tribe, followed by Angamis, Semas and Lothas together about 40,000 and the Konyaks only 250, Sangtam tribe 185, Phom tribe 88, Chang tribe 55, Khiamniungan tribe 53 and Yimchunger tribe only 45.”
ENSF president H. Wangsha described the educational scenario as “below the par” stating that the entire ENPO area has only five colleges and few Higher Secondary schools.
He said in 2011, about 843 students from ENPO areas passed the matric exams, but only 250 students could be accommodated in the existing colleges.
He said only few could go outside for studies while the rest were looking for some trade to survive. “This kind of apathy and lack of basic amenities give rise to secessionist tendencies among the youth,” he cautioned.
Meanwhile, general secretary Toshi Wungtung pointed out the most deplorable health related facilities available in the Eastern Nagaland area.
“Mon has a 50-bed government health centre and Tuensang, 100-bed with hardly any facilities available. Medicines are to be procured from outside.
If anybody falls sick in Khipire, he or she has to be sent to Kohima by road, driving for ten hours. We do not have any emergency Helicopter service or ambulance available in this most neglected region,” he said.
Lamenting the poor communication and the lack of power supply in the entire Eastern Nagaland region, Wungtung revealed that even though the “Likimro hydel power project which generates 24 MW power daily was located in Kiphire district, the entire power is supplied to the Ao inhabited Mokokchung district. We remain silent spectators and live in darkness.”
On the issue of peace talks, both the president and the general secretary asserted, “our demand is nothing to do with the ongoing peace talks and ceasefire agreement signed with different NSCN groups. We support the peace talks and want a solution to the Naga issue. But our issue is different.”
The president further added that the ENPO leadership had already submitted a detailed memorandum to the Prime Minister on November 25, 2010 pleading for a “full-fledged state with special status and provisions to the people of Eastern Nagaland.”
ENPO president said “the memorandum was substantiated and based on popular grass root resolution and mandate encompassing every Village Councils (Gram Panchayats) and Tribal Councils of Eastern Nagaland.
Now it remains to be seen how the Centre and the Neiphiu Rio government handles the pressure and resolve the sensitive issue.