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Dr Imtiwapang Aier[/caption]
Kohima, March 21: Dr Imtiwapang Aier was today elected unopposed as the new Speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) on the first day of the budget session.
The Assembly Speaker’s post has been lying vacant after Chotisuh Sazo resigned from the post in February and the deputy Speaker Imtikumzuk has been holding the additional charge of duties of the NLA speaker since then.
Aier’s name was proposed by ministers P Longon and Y Vikheho Swu, and seconded by minister Chotisuh Sazo and parliamentary secretaries Khriehu Liezietsu and Levi Rengma. Being the lone candidate to have filed nomination papers for the post of Speaker, he was declared elected unopposed.
With his election today, Dr Imtiwapang Aier has become the first Speaker from the Ao community.
He left a career in academics to join politics and was elected as a Congress candidate from Impur assembly constituency under Mokokchung district in the 2013 state elections.
Felicitating the newly elected Speaker, chief minister Dr Shürhozelie Liezietsu said the fact that Aier was elected unanimously and unopposed augurs well for the smooth functioning of the August House during his tenure as Speaker. He expressed hope that the new Speaker, though a relatively junior member of the House, would find it adequate that his four years’ experience in the House will enable him to conduct the business of the NLA smoothly and also to run the Assembly Secretariat efficiently.
The chief minister also reminded Aier that by virtue of being the Speaker of NLA, he has to shoulder additional function as the chairman of the Nagaland Legislators’ Forum (NLF) on Naga political issue as well as the convenor of the parliamentary working committee of the NLF. Liezietsu hoped that the new Speaker will do justice to those extra responsibilities and contribute his best towards facilitating the peaceful resolution of the Naga political issue.
The chief minister, on behalf of all the members of the NLA, further assured their support and cooperation as the new Speaker takes over to discharge his responsibilities in maintaining order and decorum in the House.
In his acceptance speech, Dr Imtiwapang Aier thanked the members of the House for electing him to hold the ‘dignified office’.
“I am well aware of the onerous responsibility of the office for which I am called upon to shoulder...I know that I have my own deficiencies with a limited knowledge, but I am confident and have faith that through democratic ideals and the spirit of cooperation assured by you, my workload will be lightened,” he stated.
Maintaining that the 12th NLA is a unique House as there was no opposition which was a rare case in a democratic form of government, the newly elected Speaker admitted that this peculiar character of the House rather magnifies its task. He expressed hope that the MLAs will not become complacent by not having an opposition bench, and called upon them to be more alert and vigilant in delivering the goods to the people.
“We must avoid political apathy and depression that has happened and experienced in the recent past. The electorates expect so much from us through this opposition-less government, and we have to deliver to them,” Aier said.
Pointing out that there might be conflict of views or ideas from different members during deliberations, he asserted that this should not deviate them from their common goal- the welfare of the people, which he views would open the way for the society’s uplift and ultimately towards an ‘economic freedom’.
Mention may be made here that Aier, having been elected with Congress ticket, was initially an opposition MLA. However, in 2015, he along with seven other Congress MLAs merged with the ruling NPF and was subsequently appointed as a parliamentary secretary.
