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Northeast states consulted over Naga accord: Nagaland CM

Speaking to media persons at their party office today, Tombi said that JD-U welcomed the peace accord signed between NSCN-IM and the Government of India but BJP should be held responsible if it infringes upon the territorial integrity of Manipur.

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Khoiwang said that the delegation was going to Myanmar at the request of the parliamentary working committee of the Nagaland government, which has constituted a joint legislators forum also to create consensus on the Naga issue.

With India signing a historic peace accord with the rebel NSCN (IM) on Monday, August 3, curtain has come down on the oldest insurgency movement in the country which saw bloody clashes between the Army and Naga insurgents.

Informing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally spoke to all the prominent leaders of the country on August 2, the day Naga peace accord was signed, security sources said that Mr Modi also spoke to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and informed him about the Naga peace accord.

They have been assured by the Centre that the agreement with NSCN (IM) will not affect their territories, and that they will be consulted before a final deal is struck with the outfit. “It is important that there is no political influence in the entire issue”, he said.

The Minister claimed that there has been a practice in government where affected states are consulted whenever such accords take place and the process was duly followed in this case too.

Rijiju said the security scenario has improved in the northeast but it needs to be improved further.

The three northeastern states bordering Nagaland on Friday accused Modi of not consulting them. According to the Manipur chief minister, he called up Home Minister Rajnath Singh and wanted to know about the accord and he said he will give full text, but “we didn’t get any till this moment”. It would not affect the territorial boundary of the neighbouring States of Nagaland.

The agreement, however, does not ensure complete peace in the region because of the rebel NSCN (Khaplang group), which has remained active in the recent past.

Surjewala termed the government’s contention that it had consulted Gogoi, Tuki and Ibobi Singh on the accord as “a blatant lie”. While Manipur already has an autonomous set up for the Naga-inhabited areas in five hill districts, Arunachal Pradesh had earlier submitted a proposal to the Centre for an autonomous set up in the Naga-inhabited areas of the state.

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The three chief ministers have declared that they will not cede an inch of land for the accord.

SEEMA MUSTAFA.        
        Sunday