The Nagaland government has announced that it will convene a special session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly to enact legislation for the constitution of the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority (FNTA), while urging the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) to reconsider its proposed public rally and shutdown scheduled for July 10.
In a detailed statement issued on Monday, the Home Department outlined the steps taken so far to implement the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed on February 5, 2026, between the Government of India, the Government of Nagaland and the ENPO for the creation of the FNTA.
The government said the Department of Law and Justice began drafting the FNTA Bill immediately after the agreement was signed. Under Clause 3.3 of the MoA, the authority is to be constituted through a special legislation to be enacted by the state government in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
According to the statement, the draft Bill was placed before the State Cabinet on February 26. However, the Advocate General later advised that legislative powers could not be transferred to the FNTA through a state law, as the state government did not have the constitutional authority to delegate powers equivalent to those of the Legislature. The government subsequently informed the MHA of the legal opinion on March 6 and also shared the communication with the ENPO.
The MHA later asked the state government to continue the process under the provisions of the MoA, following which the draft Bill, vetted by the Advocate General, was forwarded to the ministry on March 17.
The government said ENPO leaders met Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on March 24 and requested that the Bill be passed before the organisation’s Central Executive Committee meeting on March 30, highlighting that 49 days had already passed since the signing of the agreement.
Following the request, the Cabinet met again on March 25, approved the Bill with certain modifications and decided to introduce it during the Eighth Session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly. The Bill was tabled in the Assembly on March 26.
However, later that day, the MHA informed the state government that the constitutional issue relating to the delegation of legislative powers to the FNTA was still under examination and requested more time before the legislation was taken forward.
The government also noted that the ENPO had urged the state to ensure that all provisions of the MoA were protected while passing the Bill. At the same time, the Eastern Nagaland Legislators’ Union (ENLU) requested that the Bill be deferred until all concerns were addressed and greater clarity was received from the Centre.
Considering the MHA’s request, the appeals from the ENPO and the ENLU, and the need to ensure that the legislation remained legally and constitutionally sound, the state government decided on March 27 to defer the Bill and sought its return from the Assembly Secretariat for further examination.
The statement said the government’s response from the MHA is still awaited. Despite the delay, it maintained that the state remains committed to constituting the FNTA at the earliest within the framework of the Constitution.
