GUWAHATI: The Naga Students Federation (NSF) has urged the state government to “limit” the process of Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) “strictly to the target group”.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, NSF said that it was ready to fully support the Nagaland government in carrying out the RIIN exercise provided the government reviewed its policy before implementation.
The federation said state government had initiated the exercise recently with good intention but for it to help in implementing ILP successfully, the process in the villages of the state should be restricted to non-locals who might have taken citizenship in the villages, including the towns/district or sub-divisional headquarters of Nagaland with the base year as on December 1, 1963.
“It is felt that this exercise should not create inconvenience to the general aborigine Nagas of Nagaland. Every village authority has the record of aborigine Nagas. Therefore, we urge the state government to address the issues of indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland who have come before December 1, 1963 and other inhabitants who came after December 1, 1963. This way, proper policies can be framed to deal with the category of inhabitants of Nagaland who came after December 1, 1963,” it said.
There are other issues of non-Nagas married to Nagas and also orphans adopted and raised in orphanages whose parents are unknown, including non-local orphans adopted by Nagas whose real parents are unknown, it said in the statement.
The federation is of the view that more consultation is required before the implementation process begins.
“Several underlying questions and practical issues have to be addressed before carrying out an exercise such as RIIN,” it said.