It appears that Nagaland is following in Assam’s footsteps and going for its own version of a register of citizens. Assam is just days away from publishing the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) that is being updated for the first time since 1951. Nagaland hopes to complete its process in a record five months!
Nagaland’s Home Commissioner R Ramakrishnan issued a notification on June 29, 2019 to this effect stating that the exercise was being undertaken to stop the issuance of Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate (IIC) to ineligible people. Once the list has been finalised, all eligible indigenous inhabitants will be handed out barcoded certificates. After this, new IICs will only be issued to newborns.
The need for the registry arose due to allegations that many ‘outsiders’ have gotten hold of these certificates and are using them to get jobs and take over land. The people dubbed outsiders include the so called ‘illegal Bangladeshi immigrants’ (IBI) and even Nagas from other states like Manipur.
The Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) will be prepared after conducting an extensive survey using village and ward wise lists of indigenous inhabitants based on official records.
According to the notification, there will be designated teams for each village and ward led by SDO (C) /EAC as chairman. Members will include BDO/UDO, Headmaster of GHS (to be nominated by DEO), 2 Gaon Burahs (nominated by Deputy Commissioner), and 2 GPS, GMS or GHS teachers (nominated by District Education Officer). The teams will conduct house visits to record the actual number of indigenous inhabitants actually living there. Teams are to be constituted within 7 days of publication of the notification and information about the team should be communicated to the village council chairmen, VDB secretaries, ward authorities, tribal hohos, Church authorities, NGOs and general public.
A provisional list will be published on the websites of districts and state government on September 11. It will also be available in all villages and wards. After this a 30 day period has been set aside for filing claims and objections. The two subsequent months will be spent disposing these claims and objections and the final RIIN is expected to be published by December 10, 2019. This means that the Nagaland government plans to complete the process in just five months.
When the process of NRC was started in Assam, the first draft was published in December 2017, another draft on July 31, 2018 and the final NRC is expected to be published by July 30, 2019.
Now, compared to Assam Nagaland has a relatively smaller population. According to the last census conducted in 2011, Assam had a population of over 3 crore people, while Nagaland’s population was just over 19 lakhs. However, Nagaland has great diversity in terms of tribes, with Angami, Ao, Chakeshang, Chang, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Lotha, Phom, Pochury, Rengma, Sangtam and many others inhabiting the state. Some Gorkhas who have been inhabitants since prior to statehood i.e December 1, 1963 have also been recognised as indigenous.