By Matters India Reporter
Dimapur, Sept 11, 2025: Christian priests and nuns are among those requiring Inner Line Permit to enter Dimapur district of Nagaland state.
Under new regulations, the priests and nuns have to pay 1,500 rupees for a three-year permit that can be renewed for 500 rupees. “This is a new regulation,” a Catholic priest working in neighboring Arunachal Pradesh state told Matters India September 10.
Nagaland is among five northeastern Indian states that require non-residents, including Indians from other states, to obtain these British-era official travel documents to enter and stay.
Dimapur, Nagaland’s commercial capital that has the state’s only airport, did not require the permits until now.
However, on September 4, its deputy commissioner’s office announced the guidelines.
Commissioner Tinojongshi Chang has consolidated earlier orders, revised validity periods, and streamlined fee structures for various categories of applicants, according to a notification from Nagaland’s Department of Information and Public Relations.
The order categorized the permit for different sections such as floating population, transporters, laborers, private sector employees, teachers, priests and nuns, students, non-teaching staff, domestic helpers, traders, business partners, dependents of ILP holders, and tourists, both domestic and foreign.
The floating population, which includes shoppers, patients, and parents or relatives dropping students, will get permits for no fee for 30 days at designated counters. Daily wage laborers and street vendors from adjoining towns and villages will be charged 50 rupees for a one-month permit or 100 rupees for six months short of a day.
Transporters, including drivers and handymen, will pay an entry tax of 50 rupees for near destinations and 100 rupees for longer routes. Agriculture laborers and other categories of workers can get the permit for 165 days at 300 rupees, with renewal subject to justification and verification.
For private sector employees, including those in banks, LPG outlets, petroleum, industrial, and manufacturing units, permits will be valid for one year at 1,00 rupees, with renewal at 500 rupees. Teachers will receive the permit for three years at 1,500 rupees, renewable at 1,000 rupees.
Students will be exempted from paying fees, with validity set up to five years or until completion of their course. Non-teaching staff, domestic helpers, and drivers will require a guarantor from the employer, with fees fixed at 1,000 rupees a year and renewals for 500 rupees.
Domestic tourists will be granted the permits for 30 days at 200 rupees, while foreign tourists will be charged 500 rupees for 30 days.
The Inner Line Permits aim to protect the heritage and culture of the indigenous tribal communities.
Besides Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Sikkim have imposed the permits.
The Arunachal Pradesh priest said they have to pay 100 rupees for the permit valid for one year. “Even bishops have to pay the fees,” he added.
“But there are types of ILP. One for an individual district and another for the whole of Arunachal Pradesh,” he explained.
The Inner Line was introduced under the British Raj through the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873. It authorized the provincial government to define a so-called “Inner Line” beyond which “British subjects” (the people of the British Indian provinces) could not travel without a pass. The regulations also laid down rules regarding trade, possession of land and other matters.
The rationale for the regulation arose from the expansion of the tea industry in the Himalayan foothills in the second half of the nineteenth century. The British government realized that the uncontrolled expansion of the commercial interests into the tribal territory would cause disturbances that might warrant expensive punitive expeditions.