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'Won't allow oil & gas exploration in Nagaland', says NSCN-IM
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IANS | 04 May, 2023
Naga outfit NSCN-IM on Wednesday said that it would not allow any
exploration of oil and natural gas in Naga territories until "honourable
political settlement" of the decades-old Naga political issue between
the Nagas and the government is reached.
According to
the experts, Nagaland is estimated to have 600 million tonnes of oil and
natural gas reserves. Exploration in the state was stopped in the 1990s
due to extremism and opposition from the Naga groups.
Several
other local groups in Nagaland, including the Naga National Political
Groups (NNPG), a body of seven Naga outfits, expressed concern after
state Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa
Sarma agreed in principle on April 22 for oil and gas exploration in
the disputed inter-state border areas of the two states.
On May
1, the Chairman and Managing Director of the state-owned Oil India
Limited (OIL), Ranjit Rath, said in Guwahati that the exploration
company was keen on exploring 3,000 sq. km. in Nagaland after carrying
out operations in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Tripura besides Assam.
The
NSCN-IM, in a strongly worded statement on Wednesday, said that ever
since Nagaland state was created in 1963, "the Government of India has
been casting covetous eyes on Nagas' mineral wealth as Nagaland state is
endowed with a variety of mineral deposits, particularly petroleum".
"But
the sticking point is the unresolved political issue that is still
hanging fire in the negotiating table for more than 25 years.
Significantly, more than two decades back, National Socialist Council of
Nagalim (NSCN) had issued a standing order that no mineral wealth in
Naga areas would be allowed for exploration and extraction until
political settlement is arrived at. This order still stands valid
today," the statement said.
It said that "therefore, no amount
of justification in the name of mobilising financial resources for
development would stand to ride roughshod over the inalienable Naga
people's rights over their land resources".
The Naga outfit said
that ironically, this oil issue has come at the time when the Centre is
showing no sincerity and commitment to respect the historical and
political rights of the Naga people as enshrined in the historic
Framework Agreement of August 3, 2015, and pulling the Indo-Naga
political talks for more than 25 years on flimsy ground of negotiating
on the non-negotiable issue of Naga National Flag and Constitution. No
wonder the huge mineral wealth is a reflection of God's gift.
"The
600 million tonnes of oil and natural gas reserves is a blessed wealth
of Nagas and no authority would be given the liberty to exploit so long
as the Centre continues to handle the Naga political issue in a
flattering and betraying fashion," the statement said.
It
further said: "As much as the Government of India attached huge economic
significance to the mineral wealth, particularly oil and natural gas of
Nagaland, the same degree of political commitment should be
demonstrated in a meaningful and credible manner as demanded by the
ongoing talks."
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