Article 371 will not be altered, assures Union Minister for DoNER

Shillong Aug 8: Union minister for DoNER, Jitendra Singh reiterated Union home minister, Amit Shah’s statement that Article 371 would not be altered, as he allayed fears of some states in the Northeast.

Article 371 provides special provisions to several states in the country including states in the Northeast.

Article 371 did not cover the state Meghalaya but many states like Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim have special provisions under this Article. Gujarat, Maharashtra and few others also enjoyed the special provisions under this Article.

On the sidelines of the two-day national conference on e-governance in Shillong on Thursday, Singh told reporters the Union home minister has repeated more than once on the floor of the Parliament on this issue.

Allaying fears of some states including the Northeast after the abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said, “Article 370 has got nothing to do with Article 371 as they are two different articles. The connotations and applications of Article 371 are absolutely different. As stated by the home minister, there is no plan or intention to make any alteration in Article 371 which is going to stay as it is.”

Article 371(A) in the case of Nagaland states that no act of Parliament shall apply to the State of Nagaland in respect of religious or social practices of the Nagas, its customary law and procedure, administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law, and ownership and transfer of land and its resources.

Like Nagaland, Article 371-G is applicable to Mizoram which stated that an act of Parliament relating to religious and social practices of Mizo customary law and procedure, administration of civil or criminal justice involving decisions according to Mizo customary law, ownership and transfer of land and its resources will not apply to Mizoram unless the State Assembly decides to do so.