New Delhi: The much-anticipated tripartite talks on the Frontier Nagaland Territory (FNT) issue began on Friday in New Delhi.
The tripartite talks follow the submission of the Nagaland government’s comments on the draft Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) for the proposed creation of Frontier Nagaland Territory.
A 10-member delegation of the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO), an influential tribal body, was led by its president A. Chingmak Chang.
The Nagaland government was represented by Chief Secretary J. Alam who was accompanied by the Additional Chief Secretary & Finance Commissioner and Home Commissioner.
The Central government was represented by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Intelligence Bureau Chief Tapan Kumar Deka, and Advisor (North East) AK Mishra.
Notably, the ENPO had asked the Nagaland government to send its comment regarding the “Frontier Nagaland Territory” (FNT) to the central government by October 31.
The ongoing talks were preceded by a key meeting between Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on November 21. During the meeting, Shah assured that ENPO would be invited for discussions after the conclusion of the Hornbill festival.
On December 18 last year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah handed over the highlights of the draft MoS with ENPO on FNT to the Nagaland government for its comment at the earliest.
The ENPO, which is the apex tribal organization of eastern Nagaland comprising six districts such as Kiphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Shamator and Tuensang, has been for the past few years spearheading a “people’s movement” for Frontier Nagaland Territory. The demand stems from eastern Nagaland’s alleged backwardness.
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When Nagaland last year marked its 60th statehood day with the celebration of the Hornbill Festival, people from eastern Nagaland boycotted the event as the demand continued to hang fire.
They had also boycotted this year’s Lok Sabha elections. Nagaland has 60 Assembly seats and 20 of them are in these six districts.
