On the signing of the January 30 statement between the

government and the tribal organisations in Dimapur and the subsequent allegations by the latter that the government went back on its promise, the Chief Minister said a "misunderstanding had been created between the two sides." He claimed that since the Joint Coordination Committee (spearheading the movement) had asked for postponement to make people understand and hold the ULB elections with 33 per cent women reservation, "we agreed in principle but subject to the approval of the state cabinet."

"Therefore, we thought that postponement of ULB elections in the entire state may not be necessary so we allowed conduct of polls wherever the situation was not tensed, while postponing elections to 7 ULBs," the CM said.

"So if we have committed anything against the will of those people, NBCC and JCC ..and if this incident has taken place because of such misunderstanding, then, I apologise on behalf of the government," Zeliang said.

"The government's line of understanding was with good intention but that has been misunderstood and such incident had taken place leading to death of two youths, for which, I feel sorry and apologise on behalf of the government," he said.

Zeliang, however, expressed hope that tomorrow's proposed meeting with tribal organisations of the state, JCC and NTAC Kohima and apex body of the tribal organisations like Naga Hoho, Central Nagaland Tribes Council, Eastern Nagaland Peoples' Organisation and President GBs Federation will resolve the issue under the goodwill mission of church bodies.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)