President clears Frontier Nagaland authority Bill, giving six eastern districts their own council

President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority Bill, 2026, clearing the way for a self-governing council in six eastern districts of Nagaland that have long complained of being left behind.

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio announced the assent on X on Sunday. “It’s a key step towards realising the aspirations of the people of Eastern Nagaland,” he wrote, thanking the President and “@HMOIndia for coordinating the process.”

The authority will cover Tuensang, Mon, Longleng, Kiphire, Noklak and Shamator, together known as the Frontier Nagaland Territory. The Nagaland Legislative Assembly passed the Bill unanimously on 3 September.

What the authority will look like

The Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority will have 62 members. Forty will be directly elected from single-member constituencies, with a third of those seats reserved for women. The 20 MLAs whose seats fall inside the territory will sit as ex officio members, but without a vote and without a place on the executive council. The Governor will nominate two more, with voting rights, from recognised tribes that are unrepresented or under-represented.

The body will run for five years at a time, with elections conducted by the State Election Commission. An executive council of up to nine members, headed by a Chief Executive Member, will run day-to-day business.

Forty-six subjects are to be transferred, among them agriculture, health, school education up to higher secondary, rural development, tourism, social welfare and specified public works. The authority will also oversee village councils, urban local bodies, local taxes, village guards and customary courts. It can initiate laws on transferred subjects; these need a majority of voting members, then the Governor’s approval and publication in the Gazette.

Money will come through a separate major subhead in the state budget, and development funds will be open to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General. An officer of Inspector General of Police rank will supervise policing in the territory. The Bill says the arrangement follows the spirit of Article 371(A), which protects Naga customary law, and keeps the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873 and the exemption from Panchayati Raj “without amendment or dilution”.

A long road to the statute book

The authority grows out of a Memorandum of Agreement signed on 5 February by the Centre, the Nagaland government and the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO), which had campaigned for years for a separate arrangement for the region. The agreement provides for a review after 10 years.

A first Bill introduced on 26 March was withdrawn after the Home Ministry, the ENPO and the Eastern Nagaland Legislators’ Union sought more clarity on some provisions. Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton brought in a revised Bill on 1 September. On the day it passed, Rio told the House that the Home Ministry had asked the state to wait for its views on giving the authority legislative powers. The ENPO urged the state to stand by the February agreement, while the legislators’ union asked for the Bill to be put off until its concerns were met.

What happens next

Assent does not switch the authority on. Under Section 1(3), the Act “will come into force on a date appointed by the State Government through a notification in the Official Gazette.” No date has been announced.

Rules still have to be framed. Until the first elected authority is in place, an interim council of up to 13 members, recommended by the ENPO in consultation with tribal councils, will run it for no more than a year. The Governor may also name one MP and three MLAs from the territory as interim advisers.