Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC), tribal hohos and civil society groups have called for making necessary amendments to the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR), 1873 so that Inner Line Permit (ILP) could be extended to the whole of Nagaland.
A joint consultative meeting of these bodies held at Red Cross Conference Hall in Kohima on June 22 also demanded creation of a separate cell under the home department for monitoring strict enforcement of the BEFR, Foreigners’ Act and Indian Passport Act on a day-to-day basis while providing necessary training to enforcement agencies to equip them with relevant enforcement laws, standard operation procedure and guidelines.
Meanwhile, expressing solidarity with the neighbouring States opposing the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the meeting urged the Nagaland government to oppose the Bill in the interest of the indigenous inhabitants of the State.
It appealed to the PDA government to review its decision not to oppose the Bill in the interest of Nagaland without delay.
The organisations called upon the State government to implement the Nagaland Land and Revenue (Amendment) Act, 1978 in letter and spirit by sending necessary instructions to the deputy commissioners, revenue officers and village authorities concerned to strictly adhere to the law and protect “our land and properties”. They also requested Nagaland GB Federation to instruct its federating units to strictly enforce the Act in their respective villages and maintain records of land transfer and registration within their respective administrative jurisdictions.
Opposing the decision of the previous DAN government deciding to create Nagaland Special Development Zones (NSDZ) on March 24, 2014, the meeting termed the decision as anti-thesis to the special category State and suicidal for the indigenous people. As such, it asked the state government to revoke the decision.
Fearing that indigenous land owners will be deprived of their traditional land ownership as they would become patta holders and pay taxes, the organisations also opposed the government’s proposal to conduct a cadastral survey in the State.
On Rongmei tribal recognition issue, the organisations supported the previous DAN government’s decision to derecognise the tribe and the subsequent notification issued in this regard on June 4 this year, though they regretted the Rongmeis’ move to approach the court of law to challenge the government’s decision. This was stated in a statement issued by media cell of NTC.