{"id":166790,"date":"2014-02-06T01:23:04","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T01:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/151.106.38.4\/2014\/02\/06\/govt-clarification-on-rongmei-issue-a-cover-up-says-ntc\/"},"modified":"2014-02-06T01:23:04","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T01:23:04","slug":"govt-clarification-on-rongmei-issue-a-cover-up-says-ntc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/2014\/02\/06\/govt-clarification-on-rongmei-issue-a-cover-up-says-ntc\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt. clarification on Rongmei issue a cover up, says NTC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\/old_site\/><\/p>\n<div>Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has termed the state home department\u2019s clarification over the government stand on recognition of Rongmei tribe in Nagaland as \u201c an obvious attempt to cover up the wrong and unpopular decision.\u201d&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>NTC acting president Lendinokdang, vice president Toniho Yeptho, general secretary Nribemo Ngullie and I&amp;P secretary Theja Therieh, in a joint statement maintained, that the state government\u2019s communiqu\u00e9 further revealed a \u201c callous attitude\u201d which further created confusion rather than clear the \u201cmisgivings\u201d that the government wanted to make on numerous references to the issue by various tribal organisations etc.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>NTC cited the government committee\u2019s recommendation on Rongmei recognition, that stated \u201c such a status, while entitling them to avail all benefits of reservation to pursue employment and educations, will not make them an indigenous Naga tribe of the state.\u201d<\/div>\n<div>However, NTC pointed out that on careful review, it was found that the Committee\u2019s Report was \u201cloud and clear, that it was against granting recognition to the Rongmei tribe\u201d. It said by modifying the report, the state cabinet \u201chad gone ahead and taken a political decision\u201d outside the Committee\u2019s recommendation to \u201crecognise Rongmei as a tribe in the state of Nagaland, giving full fledged social status\u201d.<\/div>\n<div>NTC said there was a \u201cvast difference between granting Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate to individuals and granting Tribe Recognition in the state\u201d.<\/div>\n<div>According to NTC, Indigenous Inhabitant Certificates are issued for the purpose of employment and education, to members of a community who held landed properties, prior to formation of Nagaland state or whose names were listed in the 1963 electoral roll.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>It said Recognition of a tribe was for those who hold social status of being a community and inhabitants of Nagaland prior to formation of statehood, with well defined territory, distinct culture and tradition and identified as one of the aboriginal tribe by the state.<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;NTC asked, how can Rongmei tribe, being part and parcel of Manipur and Assam and enjoying all benefits of a tribe in their respective states, be treated as Indigenous Inhabitants or aboriginal tribe of Nagaland for enjoying multiple status?<\/div>\n<div>NTC highlighted the ruling of the hon\u2019ble Gauhati High Court to the Writ Petition(C) Nos.95 of 1999 and 137(K) of 2001, filed by T.A. Rongmei and others Versus the state of Nagaland, for granting recognition of Rongmei as Scheduled Tribe in the state of Nagaland.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>NTC pointed out that after hearing both sides, the Gauhati High Court dismissed the petition on July 10,2003 on the ground that there \u201cwas no merit in the case\u201d.<\/div>\n<div>In view of the court ruling that dismissed the petition, NTC said \u201csuddenly the government in 2012, went against the order of the court\u201d by recognising Rongmei as a tribe in Nagaland as a political decision \u201c to serve vested interest\u201d.<\/div>\n<div>Further, NTC said Nagaland state was formed with well defined territory of the 16 aboriginal tribes and so , existing territorial demarcations cannot be expanded nor re-defined by the state government. Unless the present territory of Nagaland was expanded or existing demarcations reorganised, there can be no justification to include tribes from other states that are not aboriginals of Nagaland, said NTC.<\/div>\n<div>NTC also maintained that recognition of Rongmei tribe does not satisfy and criteria within the legislated provisions of Nagaland. It termed the state cabinet decision as against the popular wishes of the people and without taking the confidence of the state assembly.<\/div>\n<div>NTC accused the cabinet of having acted in contravention of the legislated law that jeopardized the larger interests of the citizens of the state and asserted that there can be no government policy against public interest.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>Citing the government\u2019s decision, NTC said the issue was not about granting Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate to members of Rongemei tribe who could satisfactorily fulfil the criteria as per the April 28,1977 government notification. It said the issue was about granting social status to Rongemei tribe that qualified them to enjoy full status and benefits of the aboriginal tribes of Nagaland.<\/div>\n<div>NTC maintained that the cabinet decision infringed upon the rights and privileges of the citizens of Nagaland and therefore reaffirmed its earlier resolutions and pledge, to fight against \u201c the anti-people decisions of the state at all cost\u201d. In the light of the above, NTC reiterated its earlier demand on the government to rescind the decision in the interests of the \u201cNaga tribes of Nagaland.\u201d&nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has termed the state home department\u2019s clarification over the government stand on recognition of Rongmei tribe in Nagaland as \u201c an obvious attempt to cover up the wrong and unpopular decision.\u201d&nbsp; NTC acting president Lendinokdang, vice president Toniho Yeptho, general secretary Nribemo Ngullie and I&amp;P secretary Theja Therieh, in a joint [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[679],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nagaland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}