Independent legislator N.Thomas Ngullie has reacted to charges made against him by the Chief Minister’s Office through its media cell, wherein the latter had chosen to target him instead of addressing issues he raised regarding the controversy over the cabinet decision to hold civic polls with 33% women reservation.
In a voluminous response, Ngullie termed the decision of the chief minister and his cabinet to hold civic polls as “completely illegal” as it contravened the law and was a “betrayal of the Naga mandate and a sell out of Article 371(A) under the constitution.
Citing media reports, he alleged that the motive behind the decision to conduct civic polls was mainly to get funds from the Centre. Ngullie also said the chief minister had justified the cabinet decision because prolonged litigation was expensive.
He reminded that the Supreme Court had, on April 5, 2016 accepted the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by representatives of the Naga Mother’s Association (NMA) and granted a stay on the order of the Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court in 2012 which had passed judgement order in favour of the state government on the 33% women reservation.
He said on April 5,2016 , the Supreme Court did not order the government to conduct civic polls with 33% women reservation. Rather, Ngullie pointed out that one of the petitioner(s) had on April 9,2016 written to the chief minister and asked him to order civic polls as per the order of the Supreme Court. Following this, Ngullie said the cabinet took the decision to conduct municipal elections with 33% women reservation.