GB Union Dimapur (GBUD) declared that only indigenous GBs had the legitimacy to utilise Naga customary laws and practices under Article 371 (A).
GBUD, however, proposed that other non-Naga communities settled in urban areas and having colonies could be given the designation of Pradhan or Mukhiya representing their community/locality by properly adhering to guidelines/rules.
In a statement, GBUD media committee convener W Kholie Kapfo, secretary Hotoshe Sumi and members T Onen Jamir, Yanbothung Kikon, Taku Longkumer and Luikang Zeliang said the institution of gaon burah, village chief/headman, had survived all weathers since its inception during British rule.
They said that the first British headquarters for administering Naga Hills was established at Samaguting (now Chümoukedima) in 1866, before it was shifted to Kohima in 1879. They reminded all that the British had introduced GB institution in 1886 under the Assam Land & Revenue Regulation Act when Nagaland was under the administrative control of Assam as a hill district. They pointed out that the main objective of GB institution was to represent the village and the government administration in the form of an entity to execute activities and assist as a medium of link between the people and the government machineries.
According to them, this tradition was efficiently continuing with appropriate standard norms for the GBs as agents representing the grassroot people in the daily affairs of law and order in the urban/rural areas in collaboration with the district administration, law enforcing agencies and other government departments.
The GB Union leaders explained that the term gaon burah was Hindi/Assamese, meaning elderly man/village chief, a respect and honour given by the Britishers who were directly responsible for the village administration. Moreover, they pointed out that GBs in Naga context was a legal and constitutional entity that functioned as per the Naga customary laws and practices envisaged in Article 371(A) of the Constitution of India.