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Minister for Health and Family Welfare P Longon addressing the 19th general conference of ENGOA on Tuesday at Niathu Resort Dimapur.[/caption]
Staff Reporter
Dimapur, May 2 (EMN): As two sovereign states, the Government of India (GOI) and the Myanmar government have the freedom to construct fencing on the international border at Pangsha in Tuensang district Nagaland and with their mutual agreement they need not seek permission for construction of international border fence along Indo-Myanmar. However with the hold of article 371 (A), Nagaland is fortunate enough to be the landowner and the state has a say in such concern. This was voiced by minister for Health and Family Welfare (H &WF) P Longon, who is also the convenor of Eastern Nagaland Legislatures Union (ENLU. He was addressing as the chief guest at the 19th general conference of Eastern Nagaland Gazetted Officers’ Association (ENGOA) on Tuesday at Niathu Resort, Dimapur.
Longon said it is the duty of the government of India to convince the Myanmar government on such issue, and the legislator maintained “if at all illegal encroachment from the Myanmar takes up, more than 500 crore (area) of land will fall under Myanmar”.
Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO) was formed with a purpose and eastern people ought to build their house together to make it a home, he said. If this home led by ENPO is not stable then the eastern communities will not be regarded by other communities, said Longon.
The legislator pointed out that the state government has no role to strengthen the ENPO but to attain basic requirement, ‘peace and unity’ is required for basic development ‘which lies in our hand.’ He called on the various organisations of Eastern Nagaland to guide ENPO people, taking into account that the organisation will be liable to the society if they fail its people.
“We need action and not teaching or exhortation which is no more realistic, however we fail to keep pace in action” remarked Longon.
“Eastern Nagaland hardly represents 10% in government sector even after 37 years of reservation policy and the state government has failed to implement the reservation policy and ignored Article 16 of the Constitution of India. However the federation will continue to fight till employment justice is delivered to eastern Nagas,” confided Sepili L Sangtam, the president of Eastern Nagaland Students Federation (ENSF).
80-90% of eastern Nagas are living below poverty line and in line with the ‘Nagaland Vision 2030’ eastern Nagaland requires a separate vision document, the student leader opined. And ENGOA being the intellectual body, he suggested, the organisation should make the first move.
Emphasising on the continuous demand for separate state for Eastern Nagaland, the student leader stated ‘various forces are trying to sabotage the political aspiration of Nagas, however we need to be vigilant against such forces’.
Around 6000 eastern Nagas are employed as domestic workers across the state and there is not a home where eastern Nagas are employed because of economic problem and that is the reason for the growing demand for ‘Frontier Nagaland’, shared the guest of honour S Khoiwang, president of ENPO. He also stated that because of disunity in the eastern areas, the organisation is working diligently towards harbouring peace in the area.
“ENPO’s Frontier Nagaland demand is being rejected including the region council economic package. However we are optimistic that Eastern Nagaland will be recognised as Union Territory,” asserted Khoiwang.
ENGOA President Er S Changkei Konyak in his presidential address said eastern Nagas are’ ignorant about joy of giving’ and are ‘self-interested’. Therefore he reminded the gathering that selfishness will only bring destruction. He also conveyed it is the added responsibility of ENGOA to guide and educate people and called on the gathering to come out of their comfort zone for a better tomorrow.
Eastern Nagaland Women’s Organisation (ENWO) President Birila Tokiu also spoke on the occasion as special guest.