A peaceful sit-in protest was organized by the Naga Students Federation (NSF) under the banner of North East Students Organization (NESO) today outside its office here in Kohima. The sit-in protest started at 11am and concluded at 2pm this afternoon.
The protest is being held across the North Eastern (NE) states for issues pertaining to the region which includes the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the repeal of AFSPA, the early solution to inter-state border issues, Inner Line Permit and others.
Naga Students Federation President K Tep, addressing the media after the protest, highlighted the various charter of demands of the organization.
The Federation has demanded for the implementation of Inner Line Permit (ILP) in all the North Eastern states and to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) 1951 to protect the indigenous people of the state.
While demanding for the complete removal of Armed forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) from the entire NE region the Federation has also demanded for early justice to be brought to the victims of the 4 December 2021 Oting incident under Mon district of Nagaland.
“We feel that the incident which took place in Oting on 4 December 2021 is yet to be fulfilled and for which NESO in toto we demand for early settlement and justice for the victims as well as justice be delivered particularly to the Naga people”, said Tep.
On the issue of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), the Federation stressed that although the bill has been passed in Parliament and implementation is likely to take place before the general elections, NESO and the NSF will continue to ensure that the CAB is not implemented in the NE region.
It also demanded that the Government of India (GoI) adopt an educational policy based on the cultural and history of NE people.
“We demand that any author or book publishers should understand and should know that the identity of the NE states are respected and so as to any educational policy being adopted should be based on the cultural and history of the NE states in order to protect the indigenous people of the region,” stated the Federation.
It further demanded that the GoI look into the issue of people from Myanmar crossing over to the NE to escape persecution and to provide them with provisions of food, shelter and other welfare amenities till the situation improves for the refugees to return to their homeland.
The Federation called on the GoI to solve the unemployment problem immediately and declare NE a special employment zone wherein all the Grade III & IV of central offices must be reserved for NE people cent percent.
The other demands of the sit-in include having a separate time zone for the NE region; establishing more universities, technical and vocational institutes, medical and engineering colleges, research centres; introducing more courses in colleges and universities;
formulating a comprehensive policy for the economic development of the NE region and establishing the administrative centre of Act East Policy in the NE region, and lastly, resolving the refugee issue of Chakma and Hajong of Arunachal Pradesh.
