Naga CSOs walking with JCILPS : Reaching out to the hills
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 15 2018 -

The Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System is on track. This is what is needed.

That is reaching out to the hill people and in coming out with a joint declaration with the Naga CSOs on the need for some sort of a mechanism to protect the interests of the native people of the State, it has struck the right pose.

This is something which has long been wanted, made much more urgent by the Churachandpur uproar in 2015, after the State Assembly passed the three Bills on August 31.

What followed back in 2015 and until the bodies of the eight people killed were laid to rest, must still be fresh in the minds of the people.

This is where it becomes important for everyone to understand that the need to protect the interests of the natives of the land should not be read along community line for it is about the indigenous folks of the land.

What happened at Churachandpur is something which should not be allowed to repeat and in a way it is ironic that a mechanism to protect the indigenous people of the land should be seen to have pitted one community against the other.

Now that a joint stand has been struck with the Naga CSOs, it is only right that the JCILPS too reaches out to the Churachandpur JAC and the different communities at Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts so that there is no room for any misunderstanding.

Much will also depend on how the BJP led Government takes the feel good factor generated amongst the hill people to a new level and take steps so that no community feels left out or targeted if and when a Bill is introduced to safeguard the indigenous people of the land.

Lessons should be learnt from the fiasco of 2015.

The threat perception felt by the local people is not something imaginary.

It is real, very real and there is a reason why the demand to regulate the inflow of non-local people should echoe mainly from the valley area.

In the absence of any Constitutional mechanism to protect the interests of the local people from the large scale incursion of non-local people, it is the people who are settled at the valley area who are threatened the most.

The hills have Constitutional provisions to protect the people and forget about non-local people, even the local people from the valley cannot buy landed properties in the hills.

It is this reality which should be respected by the hill people.

It is for this very reason why The Sangai Express had earlier suggested passing such a Bill only for the valley area for it is the valley which is the most vulnerable.

Now that numerous Naga civil society organisations have come forward to back the demand of the JCILPS, let others too follow suit.

As stated earlier here, let the JCILPS take the effort to reach out to the Churachandpur JAC and talk things over so that no rooms for misunderstanding area created.

The dangers of mischief mongers cannot be ruled out and it is at times like this that all the communities need to join hands and collectively work to protect the interest of all the indigenous people of the land.

The demand for a Bill to regulate the inflow of non-local people into the State should be seen as a step to protect the indigenous people and not against anyone.