33% reservation for women in urban bodies needs more discussion: Temjen Imna Along

KOHIMA: Nagaland minister and state BJP president Temjen Imna Along said on Thursday that the widely debated issue of 33 per cent reservation for women in urban local bodies (ULB) needs further discussion among all stakeholders. Along, who holds the higher education and tourism portfolios, said that the state government needs more time to discuss the matter with various organisations, Naga civil societies, and NGOs so that urban local body elections can be held amidst the traditional Naga context.

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and the state cabinet have always emphasised inclusive ULB elections, but the government needs more time to discuss the matter with all parties concerned. “The Chief Minister and the entire cabinet have always wanted to be inclusive in the decision for the ULB elections. But various tribal hohos (organisation) and tribal apex bodies are to be involved in the context of the traditions and culture of the state,” the minister said. The cultural, societal, traditional, and religious practices, land, and resources in Nagaland are protected under Article 371A, which is also exempt from the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution for the setting up of municipalities. But the 74th Amendment did not give that exemption on the grounds that the state’s urban administrations were not part of the customary practices. Many Naga organisations claimed reservations for women in ULBs would go against their community’s customary laws.

The urban local body polls in Nagaland were recently cancelled till further orders by the state election commission soon after the Assembly passed the Nagaland Municipal Act (Repeal Act 2023).

The assembly repealed the Nagaland Municipal Act 2001 in toto following the strong protest against women’s reservations in ULBs by the various Naga tribal hohos and civil societies demanding the total review of the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2021. The Supreme Court had earlier directed the state government to conduct the ULB elections, which the state election commissioner notified would be held on May 16. The apex court observed on April 17 that women’s empowerment comes with education and also through political participation, while asking the Centre to clarify whether the constitutional scheme of one-third reservation for women in municipality and town council elections can be violated by Nagaland.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Aravind Kumar noted that a period of male dominance had existed in every society and that the judiciary needed to give a push if the political dispensation failed to act. It stressed that women’s empowerment comes through education and also through political participation. After hearing detailed submissions, the top court gave the Centre two weeks to bring on record its response in the matter.

Nagaland’s power and parliamentary affairs minister, K. G. Kenye, said that the state’s lawyers would apprise the Supreme Court of the state’s customary laws and traditions.

Strongly supporting the 33 per cent reservation for women in the ULBS, the Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA) and a few other organisations and rights activists have been agitating for women’s representation in the Naga political space. A delegation of the NMA recently met Governor La Ganesan and told him that the state government took the decision to repeal the Nagaland Municipal Act without consulting any of the women’s groups. (IANS)

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