Dr Asangba Tzudir
At a time when the issue of ‘immigration’ has become a serious issue, the Government of Nagaland is initiating an exercise to prepare a master list of all indigenous inhabitants of the State and is scheduled to complete within 60 days starting from July 10. The main objective, as stated by the Government of Nagaland, is to prevent people from acquiring fake indigenous inhabitants’ certificates.
So how will the list be prepared? The Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) list will be based on an extensive survey which will be entrusted to designated team of surveyors while also ‘unearthing’ official records of indigenous residents from villages and urban wards, and the entire process will be done under the supervision of the district administration. The survey team comprising of SDO, BDO, school Headmasters and other nominated members would be tasked with the work of noting the ‘original’ residence of each family and also their current residence.
The process will be such that, all those figuring in the RIIN list will be issued a bar-coded and numbered Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate (IIC) and this will be merged with the online system of Inner Line Permit. December 1, 1963 will be the cut-off date for considering people other than the recognized tribes of Nagaland as indigenous inhabitants.
While there are serious concerns about the nature of immigration, settlement, marriage and agricultural holding over the years, another concern is the case of the nature of adoption of non-Nagas by Nagas. The listing process itself calls for proper streamlining of the various ‘categories of people’ which includes the Naga tribes, the indigenous non-Naga tribes and also the indigenous non-tribal population. However, a lot depends on the survey team for the success or failure of the listing and calls for honesty and responsibility in this process of identifying ‘who is actually who.’
The RIIN listing objective to prevent people from acquiring fake indigenous inhabitants’ certificates may sound simple at least on paper but in reality, it will be the test of ‘will’ and character of those engaged for the listing. For now, the future of Nagaland lies on their hands.
Another challenging aspect is the bar-coded and numbered IIC that will be ‘merged’ with the online system of Inner Line Permit (ILP). This calls for proper implementation of the ILP System and sorting the issue of bringing Dimapur under the purview of ILP. The ground reality is that the economy starting from most businesses, are not in the hands of the indigenous Nagas, and often apprehensions are put forwarded from various quarters the state is fast ‘becoming the second Tripura in Northeast India.’
The RIIN listing may face several challenges in the pursuit of giving Indigenous status certification, however, one thing for sure is that, RIIN list is not going to prevent the huge influx of ‘illegal immigration,’ a serious problem plaguing Nagaland today.
This calls for a two-fold responsibility especially from the ‘indigenous Nagas’ as well as the government – of safeguarding rights through a change in lifestyle and work ethics, and most importantly to implement ILP system effectively, unless there are some other better alternatives.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
