The Lotha Hoho has asserted that it will not allow the proposed oil and gas exploration to take place in its jurisdiction unless the Nagaland Petroleum & Natural Gas (NP&NG) Regulations and Rules 2012 (RR 2012) is amended as per the Memorandum of Understanding it had signed with the Government of Nagaland on 20 November 2018.
The apex body of the Lotha tribe accused the State government of deliberately delaying Suo Motu public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court after the Hoho had withdrawn it PIL ‘to bring the matter to a logical conclusion.’
It also maintained that the Amendment of the NP&NG RR 2012 was for ‘the benefit of all stakeholders and not for the Lotha tribe alone,’ and mentioned that one of the provisions stated, “No Objection Certificate from land owners is to be issued by Naga Hoho & ENPO”. To this, the organisation questioned how a non-stakeholder can issue an NOC. LH further added, ‘there is also no provision for Royalty payment to land owners; but only Revenue, which legally implies that land owners will not have any share of the benefit.’
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LH stated that it understands the loss due to non-utilisation of the natural resources like the Petroleum and natural gas and had therefore withdrawn the PIL and expressed shock that the Nagaland government ‘does not want to take the benefits of its resources.’
Objecting to State chief minister Neiphiu Rio’s ‘confidence’ on his Assam counterpart Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, LH asked why Rio was surpassing the actual stakeholders and intending to start oil exploration with Assam within the Disputed Area Belt (DAB).
It also questioned why the DAB exist only on the Nagaland side and not on the neighbour’s side. ‘What about the numerous (twelve) Reserved forests, of Nagaland, transferred to Assam, by the British; for Administrative convenience, so they said? Are these not Disputed Areas?’ it asked.
‘Let us recollect that at the time of creation of Nagaland state, the Assam towns like Sibsagar, Nowgong and Lakhimpur were taken as the tentative boundary between Assam and Nagaland and hence the line crossing these towns should be declared as the permanent constitutional boundary between the two states,’ the Lotha body further added.
The Lotha Hoho implied that in view of the recent developments on oil exploration, it may be forced to revive the PIL which is ‘also enshrined in the signed MOU’.
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