Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), which are in talks with the Centre apart from the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) to resolve the Naga political problem, will be holding a meeting with apex tribal bodies at Dimapur in Nagaland on October 29.

The proposed meeting to seek the “valuable advice” of the tribal bodies on issues related to the Naga peace process comes in wake of the groups’ meeting on Thursday with R.N. Ravi, the Centre’s interlocutor for the Naga talks, on the draft agreement signed with the NNPGs.

The Centre and the NNPGs began their talks in 2017 and even signed a draft agreement that year before concluding their talks on October 31, 2019.

Efforts at reconciliation and securing an early solution have intensified in recent months.

The consultative meeting called by the Nagaland government in Kohima on October 15 also “appealed” to the negotiating groups to come together under a spirit of oneness, mutual trust and understanding with sincerity and commitment towards “achieving one solution for one people as early as possible”.

The meeting came amid reports about the peace process, which started with the ceasefire with NSCN (I-M) in 1997, getting stuck. The differences between the negotiating groups was also an area of concern.

NSCN (I-M) chairman Q. Tuccu has said the road to the final deal had become “ticklish” as the sensitive issue of “Naga Flag and Yehzabo (Naga constitution)” remains a “sticking point”.

Though unity and early solution was the recurring theme of the October 15 meeting, the Opposition Congress, the Naga People’s Front and the Janata Dal United stayed away. “The meeting was not up to expectations,” Naga Hoho president H.K. Zhimomi told The Telegraph. More than 200 representatives attended the consultative meeting of tribal hohos, mass organisations, civil societies, church organisations, political parties, NGOs and prominent individuals, the government said.