The Union government, Nagaland and the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation on Thursday signed a tripartite agreement to form the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority.

The agreement signed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation in New Delhi on Thursday creates an autonomous region within Nagaland.

The Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation, a pressure group that represents the state’s backward hilly regions, has long been demanding a separate state, arguing that the eastern Nagaland region was significantly more backward than the rest of the state.

The group has been calling for the creation of the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority comprising six districts: Kiphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Shamator and Tuensang.

In 2022, members of the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation met the Union home minister, following which work began on an agreement to form the authority.

During the signing of the agreement on Thursday, Shah said that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs will also provide funds for and assist the territorial authority.

“After Nagaland was created, the people of eastern Nagaland had a feeling that they were not getting justice,” Shah said, adding that the negotiations had reached a positive outcome.

“Home ministry officials had for a long time worked as a bridge between the ENPO and Government of Nagaland,” the Union home minister said. The “conflict is now nearing its end”, he added.

The signing of the pact was important because the “ENPO and the Nagaland government had taken the agreement to its logical end”, Shah added, thanking the chief minister and his colleagues.

The pressure group had called on voters in the six districts to boycott voting in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after a similar call in the Assembly polls a year earlier.

The Union home minister, in a social media post, also said that it was a “momentous day” for the residents of Nagaland.

Nagaland’s public relations department quoted Rio as having thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah for their support during the negotiations. He also thanked officials in the Union home ministry and the state government, and the ENPO for their cooperation.

Also read: Why some Nagas want to partition their state to create a ‘Frontier Nagaland’