ENSF insists on implementing reservation policy

Dimapur, Aug. 27 (EMN): The Eastern Naga Students’ Federation (ENSF) has insisted that the authorities ensure total implementation of the government job reservation policy that was introduced in the year 1977. A press statement appended by the ENSF Vice-president Manpang Wangyen and General Secretary Imti Choba Chang, stated that the federation as a concerned students’ body representing the “backward” tribes, had time and again appealed to the government and the departments to implement the ‘backward tribe reservation policy,’ which was introduced in 1977. “We regret that the noble policy has been hijacked and misdirected by the concerned leaders and officers with vested interests,” the federation stated. The organisation asserted that it had only greatly succeeded in effectively instilling the ‘backward tribes’ tag on the minds of people. “The successive governments instead of trying to address this issue genuinely has only involved itself in manipulating this notification for all these years without visioning the consequences it will have on the Naga family as a whole,” the ENSF stated. Saying that the state of Nagaland came into being with the consent of all the tribes as equals, the organisation maintained that due to many disadvantages such as late introduction of education, the eastern areas had been lagging in all spheres. “As equal stakeholders, the concern for each other is sadly lacking among our Naga family. Still the rights and the voice of six major tribes, inhabiting Eastern Nagaland stands ignored by the people responsible. The equal opportunities and rights have largely been denied to the people of eastern region since the inception of the Nagaland state,” the federation asserted. Asserting that the main and the only idea behind this policy was simply to uplift the backward regions at par with the rest of the state, the ENSF stated the framers of the policy perhaps solely for the betterment/uplift of the people, the ENSF surmised that the pioneers who brought in the backward reservation policy “as a tool for manipulation for political gain. And certainly, must not have foreseen the Act being ignored and sidelined”. “They did not have any hidden agenda other than the noble cause of uplifting the downtrodden. They certainly did not foresee this as a tool for manipulation for political gain. And certainly, must not have foreseen the act being ignored and sidelined,” the federation stated. The ENSF stated that, “While we hold the pioneers responsible for the policy in high respect, we regret that the noble policy has been hijacked and misdirected by the concerned leaders and officers with vested interests. Thus, depriving a large section of the state to avail the opportunities guaranteed to them by the policy.” The federation expressed disappointment to note that the Backward Tribe Reservation has only caused rift and more disparity in the society. ‘It has only achieved in instilling demarcations, division, and superior-inferior complexity in the young minds of today,’ it stated. In this connection, the federation alleged that the “younger generation from the advanced tribes are starting to question against the reservation policy saying that it has failed to fulfil its sole purpose, objectives, and aims, even after decades of its introduction, which was supposedly enough to have filled the gaps or disparity among the Naga families if it had been implemented and executed genuinely and honestly by the concerned authorities in power”. The federation strongly rejected the notion that the eastern Nagas are demanding for more shares than actually deserved. “While we hold the pioneers responsible for the policy in high respect, we regret that the noble policy has been hijacked and misdirected by the concerned leaders and officers with vested interests. Thus, depriving a large section of the state to avail the opportunities guaranteed to them by the policy,” the ENSF stated. The ENSF further questioned why the policy has not achieved what it had intended to achieve and why it is causing more disparity than parity while pointing out that there are about 80 departments in Nagaland out of which only less than five departments were sincere or “forcefully” implementing the policy. “What to say and do about the remaining departments that have failed to, and are stubbornly failing to comply? Why is it that which has been passed as legislation is mostly ignored by the government departments; and like refugees, the people of eastern areas have to resort to many other means and not received the enacted legislation like equal citizens?,” the union questioned. It expressed dismay at the ‘ignorance’ of the responsible department heads that are and were from the ‘advanced’ tribes. “Political leaders and departmental heads have been practicing nepotism and the so called political appointments or direct appointments without an iota of respect and consideration for the policy,” the federation stated. The ENSF reiterated its firm stand on the policy to implement had reaffirmed their commitment for the “revival” the government job reservation policy in regard to Backward Tribe Reservation, the latest was being the Notification NO. RCBT/-5/87 (Pt-II) Kohima, dated September 4 2015. The federation reminded all the departments to strictly adhere to the government reservation policy notification without ‘pretending ignorance.’ The ENSF also stated that it is aware of, what it termed, the “manipulative games” of the various departments ‘who are simply conducting the recruitment for the sake of accommodating the Eastern Nagas candidates in the 25% reservation category only while denying even the merits candidates in the general category’. “The federation is all inclined and ready to dig deeper for justice into any appointment being made by various departments without considering the government notification. We will not shy away from addressing the issue with all seriousness until these malpractices and ignorance of the concerned officers and politicians are done away with,” the ENSF stated. It stated that the government should be ready to review all the misappropriation of the reservation policy at the earliest and the backward tribes of eastern Nagaland be accommodated accordingly so as to maintain and deliver the popular democratic equality and justice in the truest sense and put an end to this infamous BT Reservation Policy in the State for the good of all. It asked the government and the departments concerned not to wait for the federation to remind them again and again; but to redress the issue at the earliest and not to invite ultimatums and unwanted agitations and confrontations in this regard. “It should be understood that the federation is not interested in doing all these activities against the state government/departments wasting our time, energy and resources which could have been spent judiciously on some other activities productively,” the ENSF stated, at the same time, it expressed hope that the government would respond the issue in a mature and a wise manner ‘unlike in the yesteryears’.