Kohima, October 21 (NEPS): Nagaland Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Excise, Dr TM Lotha questioned the manner in which the Union Minister Oscar Fernandez paid a two-day visit to Nagaland.

Talking to NEPS here today, Dr Lotha who is also a senior BJP leader in the State said the Naga people had high expectations to hear something from the visiting Union Minister with regard to the ongoing political dialogues, because he was coming directly from Bangkok after political talks with the NSCN (IM) leaderships.

However, the Naga people were taken aback by not only his failure to meet them during his two-day stay in the State but also not mentioning even a single word of the political talks he had with the NSCN (IM) leaderships in Bangkok.

"This indicates that he was not serious enough to the task assigned to him," the Nagaland Health Minister pointed out.

"Therefore the Naga people have become apprehensive about the fate of the future talks which is vital to the long drawn out Naga political issue".

"He (Oscar Fernandez) may be a Congress man but he is a Union Minister holding important Portfolio like Program Implementation," Dr Lotha stated.

"Therefore, we expect that he would meet the State Council of Ministers but he did not bother even to make a courtesy call to the State Governor".

The NPCC had yesterday however clarified that the Union Minister's two-day State visit was purely to address its members and nothing to with the ongoing peace process between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM).

"It appeared from the NPCC's clarification that the visiting Union Minister was misled by them (NPCC leaders) for their narrow political mileage," Dr Lotha averred.

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