Our Correspondent
Kohima, Oct. 19 (EMN): The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF), which has been vociferously demanding the inclusion of Dimapur district within the ambit of the Inner Line Pass/Permit (ILP) regulation, has launched the fourth phase of its stir in the form of a poster campaign in Kohima and Dimapur. The campaign was officially launched in Kohima and Dimapur on Oct. 17 and continued till Friday.
The student body holds that lack of stringent implementation of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BERF) 1873, under which the ILP is enforced in the state, and the exclusion of Dimapur district from the purview of the regulation was allowing uncontrolled influx of illegal immigrants to Nagaland, particularly to Dimapur. This, according to the federation, posed a huge demographic threat to the indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland.
The NSF has launched its first phase stir on August 8 last by conducting a major verification exercise on the ILP of non-local people in and arriving the state. This was followed by the second phase in the form of a public rally in the state capital Kohima and submission of a memorandum to the chief minister on August 24, demanding that the state government include Dimapur district under the purview of ILP as per the provision for extension of the Inner Line which is provided in the BEFR 1873. The third phase of the NSF stir was also carried out in the form of a public rally in Dimapur on September 14.
In the current phase of its campaign, the student body is pasting posters across the capital town and the commercial hub, some of which read ‘ILP identifies illegal immigrants’, ‘ILP is now the only lifeboat to save Dimapur from illegal immigrants’, ‘Dimapur without ILP today, Nagaland without Dimapur tomorrow’, ‘Only the like of Judas will oppose ILP in Dimapur’.
Speaking to
Eastern Mirror this evening, NSF president Kesosul Christopher Ltu said the federation’s campaign has progressed to its fourth phase as the state government had, while assuring to strengthen the ILP monitoring system, failed to mention anything in regard to inclusion of Dimapur within the purview of ILP in its response to the NSF’s memorandum. He said the poster campaign would continue and be carried out in the other ‘federating districts’ as well.
