Trouble seems to be brewing in Nagaland after the tribal organisations, spearheading the movement against 33 percent reservation to women in urban local body polls, have called for an indefinite state wide bandh from Monday.
The bandh call by the tribal bodies came in the wake of the Chief Minister TR Zeliang's refusal to resign by Friday midnight, the deadline set by the tribal bodies to resign owning moral responsibility for the death of two youths in police firing in Dimapur earlier this month.
The Nagaland Chief Minister refused to resign and said that he enjoys the support of 'full House' and as such, there was no question of his resigning from the post.
The proposed state wide bandh from Monday is likely to affect thousands of students in the state, who are set to appear in their Class X and XII examinations scheduled from next week. The tribal bodies under the banner of Nagaland Tribal Action Committee (NTAC) and Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) has categorically made it clear that they are not going to accept anything except resignation of Chief Minister.
"We have called for an indefinite bandh from Monday and we are going to enforce it. We are going to inform Governor PB Acharya to take necessary action for the problems to be faced by the students community. We are also going to write to the state government to postpone the examinations," said KT Villie, convenor of the NTAC.
Terming Chief Minister Zeliang as a 'killer' Villie said that they would not accept a killer as their leader at any cost and that the agitation would continue until he resigns from his post.
It may be mentioned here that some parts of Nagaland including capital Kohima and commercial hub Dimapur witnessed violent protests over the government's decision to go ahead with holding the urban local body polls on February 1 despite stiff opposition by some of the tribal organizations. Protests rocked Dimapur and longdeng on the night of January 31 leading to death of two youths in police firing and injury of over a dozen others. The protests spread to Kohima the next day, where irate mob set on fire several government offices and vehicles leading to mayhem in Dimapur and Kohima.