Kohima: Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has expressed the need to formulate a policy for land acquisition and pass the legislation in the Assembly.
“Land acquisition is the main obstacle for development,” he said, adding ”we have to formulate a policy for acquisition of land and get it passed in the Assembly”.
Interacting with newspersons on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Banquet Hall at Raj Bhavan yesterday while acknowledging that the problem of land acquisition has become the main obstacle for development, the Chief Minister felt that the government should have the power to purchase land for development by paying a recommended sum as compensation and expressed full support for the National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011.
Commenting on the State Cabinet’s recent trip to New Delhi to apprise the Centre of the Cabinet’s recommendation for creation of separate Autonomous Council for the four backward districts, the Chief Minister said they had met Home Minister P Chidambaram, who was very positive about the recommendation to grant autonomy to the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation areas.
”Meeting the Union Home Minister is as good as meeting the Prime Minister,” Rio said.
On the ongoing agitation launched by the Eastern Naga Students’ Federation (ENSF) against what it called random retention and regularisation of teachers across the state, the Chief Minister blamed it on a ‘communication gap’ as the Cabinet had already decided on reappointment and deployment. He said it was decided that due to linguistic problems, locals, from their own areas, would be given preference for appointment except in the case of Science and Mathematics teachers. (UNI)