Prolonged delay on RIIN

 Even as all the recognised indigenous tribes of Nagaland including communities have backed the demand to enact Register of Indigenous Inhabitant of Nagaland (RIIN) by introducing and legislating it in the current 7th session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, indications are that this will not happen. After vociferous demand in 2018 by various organisations like NSF and later, the Joint Committee on Prevention of Illegal Immigrants (JCPI) under the aegis of Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) and hohos for implementation of ILP to cover Dimapur, the state government in July 2019 constituted RIIN. Thus, RIIN is a consequence of the demand for extension of ILP to entire Dimapur district. Extension of Inner Line Permit (ILP) under Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act 1873 to Dimapur district meant that this has to be on the basis of identifying who is and who is not an indigenous inhabitant. Dimapur had remained the only district in the state that was not a tribal belt. However it was only 16 years after statehood and on November 21,1979 that the state government issued a notification which declared Dimapur district as a tribal belt. The notification makes it mandatory for “every non-indigenous person” who entered the district after the date of the notification, to obtain ILP within 90 days. In order to implement ILP, it was considered necessary to frame rules and accordingly the government had on July 2019 decided to form the Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN). A three-member Banuo Z.Jamir Commission was constituted to determine who was and who was not an indigenous inhabitant of the state. The state government maintained that RIIN was to prevent outsiders from acquiring fake indigenous inhabitant certificates for seeking jobs and be beneficiaries of government schemes. The terms of reference of the commission would be eligibility criteria to be an indigenous inhabitant, authority to authenticate claims of being indigenous, place of registration as indigenous inhabitants and basis of claims of being indigenous. The then chief secretary in 2019, asserted that rights and properties including land of non-Naga inhabitants of Nagaland before statehood, December 1, 1963 and those before declaration of then Dimapur sub-division under Kohima as a ‘tribal belt’ in 1979 will have to be protected. Healso clarified that RIIN will first identity the Naga indigenous inhabitants of the state and than other non-Nagas who have settled in Dimapur before 1979 and those settled in other parts of the state before December 1, 1963, the year of Nagaland statehood. The Banuo Commission on RIIN had submitted its report in 2019. It is now more than a year that the report has been with the government and copies of which were also received by JCPI. With more than one and half year after the commission submitted its report to the government, it is not understood as to why the government has yet to clear the decks even after such a long time. RIIN is a serious matter which is very important and merits urgent attention of the government. In failing to do what should have been done, in addressing the demands of the public, the government is only revealing that it does not have the head nor heart to address such matters as much as it has for projects. The opposition also needs to speak out its mind over RIIN and remove the mist of confusion.