Naga group lifts shutdown in 6 districts after responding to Election Commission notice
The group had imposed a shutdown in the region on Thursday to voice its demand for statehood, leading to a very low voter turnout during the Lok Sabha polls.
The Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation on Saturday lifted its “indefinite total shutdown” across six districts in the state after responding to a notice from the Election Commission for disrupting polling during the Lok Sabha elections on Friday, The Hindu reported.
Reports indicated that voter turnout in the six districts – Tuensang, Mon, Longleng, Kiphire, Noklak and Shamator – was almost 0%. These districts account for over 3.3 lakh of Nagaland’s 13.5 lakh voters, reported The Morunga Express.
Nagaland was among the 17 states and four Union Territories that headed to the polls in the first phase of the general elections on Friday. The state has one Lok Sabha seat.
The Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation group, representing the state’s backward hilly regions, had imposed a shutdown in six districts in eastern Nagaland from 6 pm on Thursday to voice its demand for statehood and to protest the Union government’s failure to establish the Frontier Nagaland Territory to administer the six districts.
On Saturday, however, the pressure group claimed that the shutdown was meant to prevent a breakdown of the law and order in the region. It said in a statement: “The indefinite total shutdown by the Eastern Nagaland Public Emergency Control Room... is hereby lifted with immediate effect. We regret the inconveniences caused.”
The statement, signed by Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation chief R Tsapikiu...
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