Source: The Sangai Express / PTI
New Delhi, Aug 28:
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio today met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil a month after the Centre extended its ceasefire with NSCN (IM) by one more year.
During his 30-minute meeting with Patil, the Chief Minister who was accompanied by some of his Cabinet colleagues, lauded the dialogue the Centre was continuing with the NSCN-IM, a Home Ministry spokesman said.
While extending the ceasefire by a year with effect from Augusut 1, 2006, the Centre had promised to move "expeditiously" discussing all "substantive" issues for a lasting solution to the country's oldest insurgency problem.
The agreement for the one year ceasefire was signed by interlocutor for the Naga talks K Padmanabhiah and NSCN (IM) General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah.
The NSCN-IM and security forces in Nagaland have been observing a truce since August 1997.The truce has been extended every 12 months since then except last year when it was renewed for just six months at the insistence of the rebels and further extended by another six months in February.
As part of the framework, both sides are understood to have agreed to jointly analyse the Indian Constitution to decide which parts of it will apply with modifications to the Nagas.
In its "Charter of Demands", the NSCN-IM has sought unification of all Naga-inhabited areas of the North East, separate representation at the UN, and greater rights over natural resources, finance, defence and policing.