Dimapur, July 24 NNN : The slogan, “Too Little, Too Late” postal campaign of the Eastern Naga Peoples Organisation (ENPO) continues to roar in spite of the numerous offers including packages for the four Nagaland districts of Mon, Tuensang, Kiphire and Longleng.
ENPO has been demanding to carve out these four districts from Nagaland to form a separate state christened as “Frontier Nagaland.”
ENPO leader Toshi Wungpung said tonight that the demand for ‘Frontier Nagaland’ is the demand of the people from these four eastern Nagaland districts which has been placed before the central government.
On Tuesday, a daily has reported that Rs 300 crore would be utilised in these four districts in developmental sectors.
It is worth noting that early this year Nagas in four Nagaland districts had carried out massive public rallies demanding the creation of a new state christened as ‘Frontier Nagaland’ by bifurcating Nagaland.
The rallies were held simultaneously in the districts of Tuensang, Mon, Kiphire and Longleng on January 7. The rallies were organised by Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO).
The ENPO, which is the apex organization of six Naga tribes including Konyak, Khiamniungan, Chang, Yimchunger, Sangtam and Phom inhabiting the four districts, had submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister urging him to realize the demand. “Our demand for the creation of Frontier Nagaland is based on historical facts. This is something like going back to the earlier arrangement when the entire area was under the erstwhile Tuensang Frontier Division of NEFA,” ENPO leader Toshi Wungpung had said.
Prior to Nagaland’s attainment of statehood in 1963, the entire area was under the Tuensang Frontier Division of NEFA. Mon, Kiphire and Longleng districts were carved out of Tuensang post-statehood.
“For decades, gross injustice has been done to the people of these four districts by the successive governments, both in the state and at the centre,” Wungmung had also alleged few months ago.
“Of the 11 districts in Nagaland, these four backward districts have almost half of the state’s total population. But despite that, they continue to remain extremely under-developed,” the ENPO leader had said. He added that only three per cent of the total population of the four districts was into government jobs.
“It is a democratic and people’s movement based on fundamental issues. The people in the four districts have their wholehearted support to it,” Toshi Wungpung had further stated earlier.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/enpo-demands-frontier-nagaland/