Dimapur, Dec. 18 (EMN): Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Nagaland, Tokheho Yepthomi on Dec. 17, at the ongoing Winter Parliament session, questioned the government of India about the extraction of oil along the Assam-Nagaland border by ONGC.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Yepthomi said that even though the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradha had replied to his unstarred question, the latter did not “give any details on the quantum of oil extracted along Assam-Nagaland boundary.”
According to the MP, “ONGC initiated geological survey in the state of Nagaland along adjacent areas of Assam and drilled first (oil) well in 1973 in Nagaland. ONGC commenced crude oil production from Champang filed (sic) in Nagaland in 1980-81. Cumulative crude oil production by ONGC from 1980-94 was 1.036 million metric tonnes.”
The issue, he said, was that the ONGC had initiated geological survey in the state of Nagaland along with adjacent areas i.e. Assam and drilled the first well in Nagaland at Champang field in 1980-84. “It is now 39 years where ONGC is busy extracting crude oil from Assam along the Nagaland boundary.
“The unresolved Naga political issue and differences of opinion among various over ground leaders, the ONGC has been exploiting the natural resource of Nagas quietly and silently for the last 39 years. The state government has made several attempts for oil production within the state, however due to problems amongst the landowners the matter is now in court,” Yepthomi said.
He also pointed out that the annual revenue of the Nagaland state government is barely INR 400 cr. per year, which is not even sufficient to pay two months’ salary to government employees. “There is hue and cry that there is no development in the state, but until citizens respect government property and utilise our resources to build our future there will be no development in the state,” the statement read.
