Nagaland Minister negates fear of RIIN

Kohima, Aug 13
While Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton has defended the Government’s decision on the Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN), which will help to safeguard the State from outsiders, the Nagaland Minister for Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Jacob Zhimomi has informed the citizens of the State that there was no need to fear or panic over the proposed RIIN.
Addressing a programme at Durga Mandir Hall in Dimapur on Sunday, Zhimomi said, “The intention of the Nagaland Government is to verify all indigenous inhabitants in the State and especially tackle the menace of Illegal Bangladeshi Immigrants (IBI) in Dimapur.”
He said the exercise of RIIN would only be for locals adding that “permanent residency will be given” but indicated that indigenous inhabitant certificates cannot be given to non-deserving people.
Jacob also said that Inner Line Permit would be implemented soon in Dimapur and urged genuine Indian citizens not to be apprehensive of it. In this connection, he said that the decision to implement ILP in Dimapur was “not to chase out business people but illegal immigrants to whom you and my businesses are affected.”
The Minister said that the Government has no objection to those legally entering the State and urged those willing to enter the State to follow the rules.
On the pending Nagaland civic polls, Jacob talked about the difficulty of the State Government to conduct elections to urban local bodies without 33 per cent reservation since the law has prescribed it accordingly.
However, the Minister added that the Government had set up a Committee to study the issue and would take a decision in due course of time.
On the Naga issue, Jacob said that the Government was expecting a peaceful solution “very soon” accommodating the interest of all stakeholders.  Agency