Repealing AFSPA to take time, says Rio

January 13, 2022 38 Views No Comment

Correspondent Kohima, JAN 13 (NPN) : State chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, said that repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) was a process that require time since it was an act of parliament and any decision would have to weigh the consequences over the entire country in general.

The chief minister said this while interacting with media persons on the sidelines of an event at Peducha near here on Wednesday.

Rio reiterated that the Centre has set up a committee to look into repeal of AFSPA in Nagaland and make recommendations on the Act basing on which it will be lifted from areas identified by the committee. With regard to AFSPA, Rio said that in the meantime, a system has been put into place under which there would be no army operations even though AFSPA was in place.

On NLA resolution for repeal of AFSPA and CSOs and public making similar demand through a memorandum, the chief minister said the demand was very clear on the issue which the cabinet had also resolved for repeal of the Act from Nagaland.

However, he said since AFSPA was enacted by Parliament, repeal of the Act would have to consider the fallout over the entire country.

To a query on whether the State government will make the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report public as demanded by Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organization (ENPO), the chief minister said he would have to enquire whether there were provisions for such reports to be made public.

Further he said the government will have to explain to ENPO about various norms that were to be followed in such cases besides inclusion of the report from the Army (CoI)expected to be submitted soon.

On the status of the SIT, Rio said everything had been completed except the forensic laboratory reports which were yet to be submitted since the test was done in another state.

On ENSF demanding Rs 1 crore each for the victims’ families and Rs 50 lakh each for the injured, Rio said he had communicated the issue with Ministry of Home Affairs and was waiting for the response.

On the issue of cabinet deciding to engage with a third party to look into demand to create Shamator as a district, Rio said a consultation would be held on Thursday before engaging with the third party after which necessary actions would follow.

Source: http://www.nagalandpost.com/repealing-afspa-to-take-time-says-rio/248292.html