State Focus Current Affairs — 3 November 2026, Noon

Nagaland asks the Centre to lift the Protected Area Permit regime before the Hornbill crowds arrive

28 October 2026

Nagaland has asked the Union government to exempt the State from the Protected Area Permit system and to bring in relaxed guidelines in its place.
Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio put the request in a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and raised it with him during a visit to New Delhi.
Under the permit system a foreign national must register with the Foreigners Registration Officer's Office on top of holding a visa.
The Centre re-imposed the system in March this year on Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, citing national security after the Meitei-Kuki conflict in Manipur.
The Chief Minister argued that Nagaland's position is different, that the State has been peaceful since statehood and that the stretch along the India-Myanmar border is calm.
He warned that the permit regime would keep foreign visitors away from the Hornbill Festival, which opens on the first of December and runs ten days.
Tourism and Higher Education Minister Temjen Imna Along said in Kohima that the regime hurts foreign tourist arrivals, investment and the State's economy, and that the Assembly had taken up the matter in September.
The State is working to invite President Droupadi Murmu as chief guest for the opening ceremony.