Eastern Nagaland People’s Organization (ENPO) is but a handiwork of the present state of Nagaland, as much as the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) and the Naga Hills Tuensang Area (NHTA) are the creations of British and Indians respectively. The demand to carve out a ‘Frontier Nagaland’ by detaching the present ENPO areas from Nagaland could, none the less, be solved neither by New Delhi’s ‘economic package’ nor by policy of appeasement by Kohima-based elites. Pre-British and pre-Indian occupation of the extreme frontier was unique by a simple fact that the people of the frontier identified themselves as ‘free people’.
Must then this free-people tag be served as a license for ENPO to forge a new State under Indian Union by re-doing the work left undone by colonial power(s) in fragmenting our territorial integrity? A tested territorial integrity of ENPO with present Nagaland state will primarily be conditioned by how Kohima play its part not by effective diplomacy alone but also by deterministically understanding the basic problems our Eastern brothers are / will be subject to.
Policymakers must have been contemplating on the next charter of actions to restructure the fault-line running along the socio-economic division between Eastern and virtual Western Nagaland, gradually moving on collision course. In the process, policymakers ought not to also overlook the challenging administrative and structural empowerment the people of the region basically look forward to. We have to retrospectively examine our administrative and economic lacunae in diagnosing the syndrome plaguing both the regions, while also exchanging our ideas to pre-empt the predicament lies dormant.
Establishment of a Mini Secretariat for the four Eastern Districts :- Given that our highways connecting with the ENPO areas are state of the art, travelling a distance of an approximate 300-km would be cost-effective. Additionally, if our public transport system systematically operates its service with installed high-end technology, frequent travel is expected to be less tedious. However, such infrastructural innovations exist only at a perceived stage.
With the exception of those responsibilities delegated to the district authorities, most of the major governmental works are centralised and concentrated in Kohima. Also, the district agents hardly stations at their respective place of postings. Adding to this west-leaned administrative centralisation is the slow-paced bureaucratic process (red-tapism) hindering the effective implementation of government plans and programs in the interior regions of the state, especially the ENPO areas.
People of this region will have to undertake a journey by spending at least a sum of not less than 2000 rupees to get a paper signed, to get a work done, or might eventually end up rejected at Kohima – where the same work could be accomplished by spending a maximum of 500 rupees providing a Mini Secretariat exist exclusively for the region. Hence, a rough estimate of 1500 rupees is incurred as travelling expenditure that could otherwise be invested in small entrepreneurial projects or meeting the basic needs back at home.
Commissioning a Mini Secretariat (preferably in Tuensang headquarters) exclusively for the four eastern districts offer a more realistic approach to bridge administrative gap and to revamp the previously flawed policy framework – a possible lacuna from where Frontier Nagaland basically premised – by entailing service delivery at door-step and grass-root policy research. From the administrative point of view, well established network of roads connecting various district headquarters with the proposed Mini Secretariat headquarters will eventually prove viable in the long run as creation of new state or yielding to the demands for redesignation of new districts (Tobu and Aboi) would ultimately face the same fate e.i., poor connectivity, slow bureaucratic process and dereliction of duty by officials.
Introduction of a Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime :- Empirical research postulates that an uncompetitive business environment is in practice with most business establishments being monopolised by outsiders. Mention may be made that 7 pieces of Happydent (chewing gum) cost 10 rupees in Tuensang whereas we get 10 pieces of Happydent for 10 rupees in Kohima. Farmers lament that a kilogram of ginger is channelled to market at an extremely low cost of 4 rupees, while a kilogram of ginger in local markets (eg Kohima) cost between 50-100 rupees (depending on season). The farmers regretted that they had to sale their produce at such a low price due to lack of secured networks of market, besides high cost of transportation.
The question is why should differential pricing policy be applied to same commodity in a single market? We have heard of International Trade Centres been inaugurated in media, yet we doubt the physical well being of these centres catering to the needs of the locals to dispose of their perishable goods at protected market value. Policymakers must exploit ways and means to establish a secured network of markets to facilitate farmers to vend their produce on time.
As country’s extant cold storage facilities is only about 50 per cent of the required 60 million metric tonnes, the plight of our state is understandable. Still then, those at the helms of affairs are duty-bound to install more storage facilities as we cannot afford to waste our agricultural goods produced with few available resources.
In the event the above two remain unreachable, the government must be prepared to introduce the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for selected agricultural products. As explained above, the price of ginger is discriminatory, thereby dis-incentivise dedicated farmers. With tree-tomato having accorded Geographical Indication (GI), and ginger, yam, Naga Dal or allied horticultural crops abundantly cultivate in the region (or in the state), MSP regime be extended to these crops under ENPO areas (if not in whole of Nagaland) in an attempt not only to protect the interest of the farmers but also to encourage them. The policymakers seem clueless on tackling rising unemployment rate in the state, yet they remain equally insensitive to the structural enhancement to promote agriculture as an alternative employment sector.
Setting up of a State Water Authority :- Vast tracts of land after crossing Mokokchung district are marked by unsustainable expanse of unnatural blackish soil/land during February-March. This trend continues even upto the adjacent mountain ranges of Tuensang headquarters. Forest canopy can hardly be spotted along the stretch of the State Highway once we crossed Chare administrative headquarters.
The unnatural colour of the soil is attributable to the conventional practice of slush and burn cultivation on subsistence pattern. Unlike the southeastern districts of Phek and Kohima where terraced fields are heavily clustered (considered more sustainable environmentally), areas under ENPO largely depend on jhum fields for stable food – rice. Yearly pattern of clearing jungle for jhuming together with felling of trees primarily for fuel and timber reduced forest and its resources to the bare minimum.
The future existence of PHE department is doubtful considering the continuous exploitation of degrading forests – since the only source of fresh water is forest. With forests in the region (due cognizance should also be taken on the overall condition of forest health in the state) fast depleting due to jhuming, forests are cornered to some few protected summits of mountain ranges and are still vulnerable to further degradation. As of now, when enquired a particular village about the source of water for drinking, the villages in Eastern region are tapping drinking water from a common source (may vary from village to village) at a distance of not less than 5-6 kms.
Though, at present, we enjoy a privilege of tapping water mutually, the trend is likely to entangle itself in disputes over few available water sources and boundaries on intra-village / inter-village or inter-tribal lines. Forest degradation further poses a threat to water sources. Worsening the matter, the last few decades exposed unprecedented water sources getting dried up particularly the small streams and springs around the state. Whereas we cannot thrive in the absence of substantial ecosystem services, it is unfortunate that we do little to appreciate the importance of forest and its management.
Bring-in together from various fields including hydrologists, environmentalists, social activists and locals as opposed to conventional commissions / committees made up of only government officials, a quasi-judicial State Water Authority or Commission be set up to holistically survey the depleting water sources and bring out ways to check its further depletion, to explore traditional and technological means in harvesting water, to advice the state on sustainable water management, to arbitrate water related disputes and to take actions against activities inimical to water sources and its judicious usage.
Floating a new Discrimination Redressal Bureau :- A separate Department of Under-Developed Areas (DUDA) exclusively for four Eastern districts is in operation, tasked with responsibility to deliver physical developments in the region. It is believed that the department give all-out effort devoting to the development of the region. However, if so, why the region is still seeking physical separation from Nagaland, or expressing discontentment?
ENPO’s exit from Naga Hoho, or a proposed nano-Frontier Nagaland to be carving out from mini-Nagaland, is deep-rooted extending beyond physical developmental lapses. Free people tend to think freely. Imposition of majoritarian views in quickly arranged consultations on issues confronting both the regions, perceived discrimination at the hands of the western brothers, low-self-esteem developed as a result of superiority attitude of the western tribes and frequent discrimination at work places contribute to emotional withdrawal of the people from ENPO region. Categorical failure to check discrimination meted out to our Eastern people catalyst drifting apart between the two regions, leading to movement for separate state.
Gaining emotional integration is, for the time being, the most revered approach towards patching up the uneased relationship between the two brothers. Not a mere lip-service will do good. Manned by Eastern experts, a bureau should be set up in the state Capital to ensure that complaints on discrimination get registered with the bureau. Bureau should be designed that it addresses the case / issue registered with it in time-bound manner. Apart from organised discrimination, incidents of road-rage, servitude (especially children and women from the Eastern region) and social stigma would stand benefit from this proposed Discrimination Redressal Bureau.
Promoting rural-cultural tourism :- Kohima should convince New Delhi to relook into the present limited access to either side of the international boundary. Policy intervention along the border is imperative should Kohima make use of the aesthetic cross-cultural exchanges in return for revenue. It would be in the interest of our state to renegotiate the present regulated commerce upto an extend of 16 kms on either side of the border and a limited 72 hours stay without visa to somewhere around 50 kms delineated as “commercial & cultural exchange zone” and 30 days stay-period by invoking Article 371(A).
Equally important is the downsizing of security forces deployed along the border. Presence of heavy security forces will inhibit tourism avenues. The border not being a war zone, concentration of paramilitary in the region is sceptical and deceptive. Promoting indigenous crops and products, positive cross-cultural exchanges and deeper social intercourse will connect us to the missing-link in reconstructing peace in the region, and simultaneously generate revenue for the region and state alike. ENPO, therefore, should not be parochial in their approach by demanding a nano-Frontier Nagaland which will prove infructuous. It ought to look beyond the border and extend its presence and influence eastward to relink with our on-verge-of-forsaken brothers. If Chinese companies could tap resources in Naga administered areas of Myanmar, artificial boundary should not stand on our way to equitable sharing of benefits arising out of genetic and other natural resources.
Partly held accountable, successive MLAs from ENPO areas should have been more responsible to their people than what they already had been to. Policymakers alike, election-oriented politics have to be supplanted by a new thinking fulfilling the present civilizational criteria and adhering to high ethical standards socially, politically, economically and even environmentally.
