Article 371(A) could end up like Art. 370: Jairam Ramesh

Correspondent

KOHIMA, FEB 16 (NPN): Rajya Sabha member and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh has expressed genuine apprehension about the possibility of Article 371 (A) meeting the same fate as Article 370.

The former union minister and Congress MP said this during the press conference at Congress Bhavan here Thursday evening, where he pointed out that a BJP government that had abolished Article 370 (erstwhile J&K state) could also do the same overnight with regard to Article 371 (A) involving Nagaland.

According to Jairam, BJP abolished Article 370 on August 5, 2019 because it believed in uniformity, while Congress believed in unity and adding, that this was the main difference the two parties.

He said the Congress government at the Centre had inserted Article 371 (A) in the Constitution of India in 1962 to protect, preserve and promote the interests for Nagaland which came into being in 1963. Jairam reminded that Congress is the only party which respected the culture and religion of Nagaland as it stood for unity through diversity, while “BJP believed in suppressing India’s diversity in the name of uniformity”.

Referring to the upcoming Assembly election, Jairam said it was very important as it provided an opportunity to the people of Nagaland “to reject the forces that made false promises in 2018 and repose trust and confidence in Congress which always respected and celebrated India’s diversity”.

He said the Assembly election was “historic in many ways” and expressed the hope that the youth of Nagaland have realised who made false promises of “double-engine government when there was no track”.

Jairam said the past five years had been a period of betrayal and failed promises. He said that in 2018 the BJP election slogan was ‘Election for Solution’ but in 2023 it should be ‘election for confusion.”

On Naga political issue, he said the August 3, 2015 Framework Agreement(FA) was welcomed by many, including Congress who longed for peace, social harmony and development in Nagaland. However, Jairam lamented that even after eight years, details of FA are still unknown and that BJP did not even mention a word about FA in its poll manifesto.

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On the state of the roads, Jairam said other than the highway linking Dimapur and Kohima , roads leading to district headquarters and across the State were virtually nonexistent. He said even the Dimapur-Kohima road was not of good standard while other roads being dubbed as ‘potholed roads” was indeed a big joke.

On the Jal Jeevan Mission(water), he said there was neither “Jal” nor “Jeevan” but only huge water shortages across the State. Likewise, he said, due to poor electricity supply, periods of darkness in Nagaland was longer than light.

He also accused the State government of failing to properly tap sports potential of Naga youth who have a natural flair for sports activities. In this, cited the Dimapur Stadium whose construction has not been completed even after ten years. Jairam also claimed that development had come to complete halt and corruption had increased astronomically while the people were being led astray by the BJP-NDPP alliance.

Police conduct state-wide checking of own vehicles

Correspondent

KOHIMA, FEB 16 (NPN):

Following cases of misuse of government vehicles surfacing and to prevent such vehicles from violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), Nagaland Police carried out a three-hour frisking of its own vehicles and those registered under the department across the State on Thursday at the directive of director general of police (DGP). The drive was carried out mainly to monitor and pre-

Turkey-Syria quake

death toll nears 42k

ISTANBUL, FEB 16

(AGENCIES): The death toll following last week’s deadly 7.8-magnitude quake that devastated Turkey and Syria is nearing 42,000, as survivors take stock of their losses. Hundreds of thousands of others were injured in the series of earthquakes that devastated the region, as rescue and recovery efforts continue to press on. The quake killed at least 36,187 in southern Turkey, while authorities in neighbouring Syria have reported 5,800 deaths - a figure that has changed little in days.