Dimapur, August 17: The United Naga Tribes’ Association of Border Areas (UNTABA) has in the outright rubbished as ‘nonsense’ and ‘lame utterance’ the claims of the Nagaland Home minister that the border areas of the state had been secured.
The organization issued a press release on Wednesday noting comments in the media reportedly made by the Home minister as having stated that “all efforts had been made to secure Nagaland border.”
The statement, the organization quipped, is ‘not only nonsensical but completely contradicting the Border Affairs Department who had been seriously involved in litigation process for the last three decades as respondent no. 3 in the Civil Suit no. 2 of 1988 filed by AGP Government of Assam claiming in the Supreme Court that the inter state boundary between Assam and Nagaland is yet to be clearly demarcated.’
“The pertinent question is where is the border and how many areas of the border are secured?” the UNTABA queried. “Such lame utterances clearly show complete lack of co-ordination amongst the authorities in the government revealing complete lack of the sense of responsibility and the lack of political will on the issue and creating more confusion among the masses on the issue that confronts the people on day today basis.”The organization reminded the government of a number of aspects concerning the border issue: the authorities in Assam have deployed 47 Assam police posts in all the border areas even inside Nagaland. Interestingly, on Nagaland’s side there is merely 14 Nagaland police posts (figures available with the Border Affairs department) since the interim agreement between the two states in 1972.
Moreover, the organization stated, all the 11 reserve forests mentioned in the interim agreement of 1972 and re-affirmed in 1979 ‘now stands completely deforested by facilitating illegal settlements to the people of questionable origins from across the state even before these reserve forests are de-notified.’
The agreement states that the administrative power was given to the authorities in Assam on the conditions that no settlements shall be allowed, the press release stated.
“Now, starting from Doldoli Reserve Forest near Dimapur to all the Reserve Forests along the border areas to Tiru Reserve Forest and Abhaypur Reserve Forest in Mon districts have become a big township all along. Such are the hard realities completely over-looked by the successive government of Nagaland,” the organization stated.
The UNTABA had this word for the Nagaland government:
“Fight vigorously for the implementation of the interim agreement in letter and spirit by evicting the illegal settlements in all the reserve forests along the border areas facilitated by the Assam Government and demand for the implementation of the 16 points agreement made between the Government of India and the people of Nagaland during the establishment of Nagaland statehood.”
