Nagaland: 5 Tribes CoRRP to resume agitation over reservation policy on July 9

KOHIMA — The 5 Tribes Committee on Review of Reservation Policy (CoRRP) has announced that it will resume its agitation with a sit-in at the Nagaland Civil Secretariat on July 9, citing the government’s inaction in taking forward the decision to constitute a commission on reservation policy reforms.

The decision was taken during a joint consultative meeting held in Kohima on Thursday. Presidents and chairpersons of the Angami Public Organisation, Ao Senden, Lotha Hoho, Rengma Hoho, and Sumi Hoho, along with representatives of their respective youth and student wings, attended the meeting.

After the meeting at Hotel Ura, GK Zhimomi, Member Secretary of the committee, told Eastern Mirror that the one-day sit-in will begin at 9 am at the Secretariat.

“Since the response of the government is not forthcoming, we’ve decided to go ahead with the second phase of agitation which we had suspended since June 3,” he said.

The committee has been pressing the government to either scrap the 48-year-old state reservation policy or allocate the unreserved quota to the five tribes. In early June, citing prolonged inaction, the committee launched a first-phase agitation.

Also read: Nagaland: 5 Tribes CoRRP renews call for action on Reservation Policy review

However, the protest was suspended following a meeting with the state government on June 3, during which the government proposed the formation of an independent commission to study the issue.

Following that meeting, the committee gave the government 15 days to deliberate and act on the formation of the commission. That period lapsed on June 17. The government had subsequently indicated that the commission would be constituted within a month’s time.

However, as of July 3, the committee pointed out that no official notification detailing the commission’s composition or its terms of reference has been made public.

Zhimomi remarked that the delay appears to be a tactic to prolong the issue. “The reservation policy has gone on for 48 years and cannot be extended indefinitely in the name of one excuse or another,” he stated, adding that if the government had the political will, it could resolve the matter without delay.

Read more: Job Reservation Row: Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio urges patience, says reforms after Census

The committee’s renewed protest comes a day after Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, addressing journalists on July 2, called for patience and stated that reforms related to administration, reservation, or delimitation should only follow the national Census, which the Centre has indicated will begin in 2027.

In this connection, Zhimomi said that the Chief Minister’s remarks “contradicts the decision of the cabinet that has set up a committee on reservation policy.”

He said the commission, which was not their demand but an outcome of the June 3 meeting, would take three/four years to formulate, and hoped for clarity in the days ahead.