Governor asks Nagaland govt to implement women reservation

Nagaland Governor P B Acharya today asked the state government to implement the 33 per cent reservation for women in urban local bodies and Lokayukta.
"I have asked Chief Minister T R Zeliang to establish Lokayukta so that corrupt officials can be checked and also make the functioning of the government transparent," he said during an interaction with media persons at Raj Bhavan here.
He said constitutional checks and counter checks will run the government as they make the state machinery accountable to people.
On the recent Cabinet decision to conduct polls to urban local bodies with 33 per cent women reservation, he said this was mandatory and constitutional and the state government has already amended the Nagaland Municipal Act.

Stating that the women group of the state had gone to the court demanding implementation of 33 per cent women reservation in urban local bodies and the case is pending in Supreme Court, Acharya said the state government has decided to implement women reservation but some tribal organisation were against it.
The Governor said he has asked the state government to convince these people and conduct elections to the urban local bodies by implementing women reservation.

On the Naga peace talks, the Governor expressed hope that "something concrete will come out in near future" without giving any time frame.
He quoted the Centre's interlocutor R N Ravi and NSCN(IM) general secretary Th Muivah stating that purposeful talks were going on and an agreement was in sight.

The Governor therefore appealed to all the Naga underground groups to join the peace talks so that there won't be any dissension and it will be unanimous, and the state can march forward when 'real peace; was achieved.
On the law and order front, Acharya said the government has to win the confidence of the people.
He regretted that the enquiry reports of March, 2015 lynching of a rape accused and killing of a businesswoman in December, have not been made public till date and requested the government to appoint a new probe team.
On the development activities, the Governor lamented that major projects like medical college in Kohima and railway connection were being stalled as some of the landowners rejected the compensation system.

"Any injustice should be sorted out. A public project should not suffer because of individual greed," he said and called upon the people to think of wilful contribution in case of a public cause.