The Joint Committee on Prevention of Illegal immigration asked the Nagaland government to issue notification on Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN).

In a memorandum to chief minister Neiphiu Rio on Monday, committee president K Ghokheto Chophy and secretary Tia Longchar asked the government to fulfill the demands by March 15.

The committee said it would be compelled to resort to any democratic means of protest to restore “our inherent rights and privileges” if the demands are not met within the period.

The committee lauded Rio for his prompt decision to enumerate indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland under RIIN and for constituting a commission headed former chief secretary by Banuo Z. Jamir in this regard.

It said though the commission had completed ground studies in 2019 but has not submitted its final report till date.

It demanded that the final notification on Banuo Commission report should be issued by February 25.

The committee said the special provisions of Article 371(A) and other protective laws, which include effective enforcement of BEFR, 1873, in Nagaland, including Dimapur district, can be fully realised only when indigenous inhabitants were properly identified.

It welcomed the state government’s decision to bring Dimapur district under the ILP regime and to work out a comprehensive mechanism and operational guidelines based on Abhishek Committee’s report.

However, the committee rued that the government could not put a system in place for total implementation of ILP based on the committee’s report for effective enforcement till date.

The committee expressed dismay as to how the government had arbitrarily chosen to introduce 1979 as the cut-off year for implementation of ILP.

It said there cannot be a separate cut-off year for ILP enforcement in the state as the system came along with the statehood in 1963.

The committee, however, said enforcement of ILP should be subjected to the status of inhabitant’s category as identified by RIIN.