Nagaland tribes oppose proposed NSDZ

The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC), a body comprising different tribes of the state, has expressed reservations on state government's ambitious project to have special development zones along the foothills of the state.
"The proposal for Nagaland Special Development Zones (NSDZ) should not in any way jeopardise basic rights of Nagaland state provided under Article 371(A) and subsequent protective laws of the state with self-infringement programme or policies," NTC President Lendinoktang Ao and General Secretary Nribemo Ngullie said in a representation to the Chief Minister T R Zeliang yesterday.
It said as per the concept note of NSDZ resolution, adopted in the state Assembly on March 24, 2014 covering five of the 11 districts, the existing land ownership and tenure system and the ILP system would be relaxed and there were proposals to restructure the land holding and tenure system.

The objective of such "structural modification" would lead to giving away "tribal lands to non-Nagas and outsiders for permanent settlement and possession," it said.
It cautioned that if the protective laws of the land were compromised in the guise of facilitating faster growth of industrialisation and urbanisation, "the sons of the soil may be eventually rendered to slaves in our own land.