Nagaland starts process to prepare list of indigenous inhabitants

Kohima, July 10 (PTI): The Nagaland government on Wednesday started the process of preparing a register of all indigenous inhabitants of the state, Chief Secretary Temjen Toy said.

The Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) will help identify indigenous inhabitants who settled in Nagaland prior to December 1, 1963, the day it became a full-fledged state.

The RIIN will prevent people from acquiring fake indigenous inhabitant certificates, Toy said.

“Currently such certificate is being issued randomly but the RIIN will ensure efficiency and streamline the entire process, while also providing accurate data of the indigenous inhabitants in the state,” he told PTI.

Only those whose names figure in the RIIN will be issued indigenous inhabitant certificates and all other certificates would become invalid after the preparation of the final register.

The list will be prepared by an extensive house-to-house survey, based on official records, under the supervision of the district administration, Toy said.

Nagaland Home Commissioner R Ramakrishnan had on June 29 issued a notification that the exercise would start from Wednesday and will be completed in 60 days.

To prepare the RIIN, a number of teams have been set up at village and ward levels, and the house-to-house enumeration will commence only after a final review meeting of different committees is held at the chief secretary level, he said.

The RIIN is loosely termed by some quarters as another form of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), currently being updated in Assam, but actually it is a “more efficient process” to issue a certificate to the genuine indigenous people of the state, the chief secretary said.

While several political parties and civil societies have welcomed the move, a section of them expressed concerns, claiming that the definition of “indigenous inhabitants” was not clear in the notification.

According to the notification, each member of a family will be listed in the village of their original residence and mention will be made of any member living elsewhere.

A provisional list would be published in the villages and wards, as well as on the website of the district and the state government on September 11.

Claims and objections can be filed for a period of 30 days, that is on or before October 10, 2019.

Based on this, the list of indigenous inhabitants will be finalised and each indigenous inhabitant will be given a unique ID.

Accordingly, the final list of indigenous inhabitants, the RIIN will be created, the home commissioner said.

Once the process is complete and all genuine indigenous inhabitants are issued certificates as per RIIN, all existing indigenous inhabitants certificates issued by any authority will become invalid, the notification said.

APO seeks clarity on RIIN
Dimapur, July 10 (EMN): The Angami Public Organisation (APO) has expressed concern over the manner in which the Register of Indigenous Inhabitant of Nagaland (RIIN) would be carried out in the state and has sought clarity from the government.

APO said in a statement that its executive council had convened a meeting to deliberate on the proposed process of setting up of the RIIN, which will serve as a master list of all indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland. It came to a conclusion that the government should give “clarity as to which official record it meant” when it has notified “list of indigenous inhabitant based on official records.”

“Further in this context, the APO fully endorses the Government of Nagaland Notification No – AR 8/8/76 28th April, 1977, wherein the criteria for a person to qualify as Indigenous Inhabitant of Nagaland were clearly spelled and which forms the basis for issuing Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate.,” read the statement.

The APO is of the view that the government frame proper modalities before the actual registry of indigenous inhabitant of Nagaland begins. It also “feels the time frame of 60 days to prepare and submit the list is also too limited, that it might hamper proposed extensive survey work and therefore suggests that sufficient time may be given to prepare the list.”