Politics / Nagaland

Kohima, June 16: Nagaland has decided to downsize its ministry. Chief minister Neiphiu Rio said the Centre was informed of the state’s problems in implementing the parliamentary legislation. “They told us that an amendment would be required if the demands of the states were to be met,” Rio told reporters last evening. “For now we will have to implement it.”

Several members of the current ministry fear being excluded from the new council. After July 7, there will be 12 instead of 36 ministers, including the chief minister.

Nagaland will reportedly save more than Rs 20 crore after the ministry...

DIMAPUR, June 16 – In the countdown of downsizing of ministry, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio in his first -ever statement on the issue after his return from the national capital on Tuesday at Kohima said: “It will be inconvenient but we will make it”. “It is not that we will just take 12 ministers and function, but we will take a collective decision and work out a collective strategy for the welfare of the people”, Rio reiterated.

The Chief Minister said that a team of ministers and party leaders led by him had recently met the Central leaders at New Delhi and requested them not to...

Kohima, June 15: The Neiphiu Rio government today iterated its stand that it was in favour of a continuation of dialogue with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah). But the chief minister and his cabinet also hinted that the Khaplang faction was returning to violence following the change in government at the Centre.

The Consultative Committee for Peace met here today and resolved to ask the NSCN (I-M) leaders to expedite the peace negotiations with Delhi. Conceding a sharp rise in killings and factional clashes across the state, Rio said his government was deploying...

Kohima, June 14: Naga insurgent leader S.S. Khaplang might follow rivals Isak Chisi Swu and Th. Muivah to India this year. NSCN (K) deputy kilonser (minister) Kughalu Mulatonu said on his return to Nagaland from New Delhi that Khaplang, the Myanmar-based chairman of the militant group, was planning to come out of self-imposed exile to lay the foundation for a dialogue with the Centre. However, he declined to divulge Khaplang’s travel plans, citing “security concerns”.

Mulatonu, who admittedly did not meet any political leader during his stay in the capital, said he made the trip simply to...

KOHIMA, June 14 – Taking exception to the letter by senior Congress leaders of the North- east to the Centre, Naga NGOs have charged former chief minister S C Jamir and the other signatories with ‘sabotaging’ the ongoing peace process at a time when the Nagas were hoping for an early settlement of the protracted political conflict through dialogue, reports PTI. Naga Students’ Federation (NSF), Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) and Naga Mothers Association (NMA) condemned the Congress leaders’ stand on the ongoing peace process and their insistence on declaring NSCN(I-M) as a...

KOHIMA, June 13 – The NSCN(K) has said that the Naga Hoho and other NGOs had been making efforts to foster peace between the two NSCNs since 1997, but without success, reports NEPS. Surprisingly, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had reposed his trust on the Hoho and other NGOs and was using them as a “vehicle of peace”, a serious miscalculation that led to derailment of the ongoing peace process, Kughalu Mulatonu, kilonser (minister) of the NSCN(K) told NEPS over phone on Friday on his return from Delhi.

“Rio must understand that Indo-Naga political settlement cannot be brought about with...

NEW DELHI, June 12 – Seeking continuation of the Naga peace process, a high-level delegation of tribal leaders has demanded putting on hold for Nagaland the Central legislation on downsizing of state ministries and the process of constituency delimitation, reports PTI. Downsizing the Nagaland ministry, which represents all Naga tribes, would mean curtailing of their representation. Downsizing should not be made applicable to Nagaland,” M Vero, president of the Naga Hoho, the apex tribal umbrella body, told reporters on Friday after a 40-minute meeting with Home Minister Shivraj Patil here. He...

NEW DELHI, June 11 — Asserting that the Union Government was interested in defusing the disturbances in the North-East, Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil today disclosed that the Centre was in the process of finalising the next course of action in the Naga peace process, even as he ruled out redrawing of the territorial boundaries of the North Eastern States. The Union Home Minister’s disclosure came even as a delegation of Naga Hoho landed in the capital to lodge protest over the UPA Government’s pledge not to tinker with the territorial integrity of the North Eastern States. They wanted the...

Jorhat, June 9: Breaking its silence since the change of guard in Delhi, the NSCN (Khaplang) has ruled out the possibility of reuniting with the Isak-Muivah group, saying the rival faction continues to attack its members at the behest of recruits from Manipur. The statement could dampen enthusiasm over the NSCN (I-M)’s top leaders, Isak Chisi Swu and Th. Muivah, planning a second visit to India in as many years and welcoming the installation of a Congress-led government in Delhi.

Observers of Naga insurgency believe peace will remain elusive until the two factions bury their differences. Both...

Kohima/Dimapur, June 8: The Nagaland Congress has revealed that a delegation of the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government, led by chief minister Neiphiu Rio, met senior AICC leaders in New Delhi last week and expressed their wish to return to the Congress fold. The state unit of the Congress said it would have nothing to do with the DAN under Rio’s leadership. “They have started showing their real colours,” said PCC general secretary Yesonu Veyie in a release.

Describing Rio and his colleagues as “political chameleons”, Veyie accused them of not having “an iota of conviction...