NTC no to LoC proposal for settling border dispute

EMN DIMAPUR SEPTEMBER 10 THE Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) have fallen short of terming Chief Minister TR Zeliang’s bid to address the Assam-Nagaland border issue by creating a Line of Control (LoC) as ludicrous. The NTC in a press release states it held an emergency meeting at the Rest House, Zunheboto to deliberate on the proposal of the Chief Minister, to the Government of India to introduce a Line of Control (LoC) over the disputed area with Assam. It says they are ‘surprised over the complete abandonment of the age old stand of the Nagas … the age old demand for the return of ancestral land’. The release says ‘18 years before the British left India, in 1929, the Nagas presented a petition to the Simon Commission for the return of the Forest lands transferred to Sibsagar district of Assam for better administration and management of the forest, in addition to other political issues’. NTC elaborates that the stand of the Nagas on the disputed Land was repeated in 1948 in the famous Sir Hydari on 9-point agreement. The issue was ‘raised’ again in 1963 in the 16-point agreement between the Naga People Conference and the Government of India. Since then the State, from 1963 to date, for 51 years have been all along demanding the ‘Return of Our Land’. Hence the Chief Minister’s proposal for an LoC does not conform the ‘unwavering age-old stand’. Instead the Chief Minister’s adopted line of ‘line of control’ NTC says anticipates the following: Prevent new settlement in the disputed land; (ii) place additional guards in the border areas to prevent disturbances in the area. The NTC says it was exactly with this objective that an agreement between the Chief Ministers of Assam and Nagaland was made way back in 1972. However, that agreement could not prevent ‘further settlement nor turmoil in the area’. It says Assam used the ‘Status Quo Agreement’ to occupy more land and alleges that it used so-called ‘Neutral Force’ to its advantage. NTC says there unless the border is demarcated there will be no end to further bids of settlement and turmoil in the area. Therefore the demarcation of the border must be first and foremost and must be arrived at on ‘mutual consent outside of the court’. NTC says ‘Assam has filed a Case, against Nagaland; it is lying in the Supreme Court for nearly a decade. The Supreme Court has appointed two very experienced Retired Justices renowned in Mediations as Supreme Court Mediators to suggest ways and means for an amicable solution between the two States.This is an unusually wise consideration on the part of the Supreme Court in the case. The state of Nagaland must strongly insist on a Mediated Settlement in ‘mutual consent’ by the states of Assam and Nagaland. The Supreme Court Mediators have held numerous discussions with the Two States Officials, with various NGOs and concerned Citizens’. The press release says the ‘new idea’ of the Chief Minister is in complete deference to what the NGOs have been stating and submitted will be unfavorable to the state of Nagaland. They have alleged that the Chief Minister has not done sufficient ‘home-work’ and that he must take the citizens of Nagaland into confidence on these vital issues. ‘The Nagaland Tribes Council very strongly desires the Hon’ble CM care more to what happens to Land under Jurisdiction of the Nagas of Nagaland. What the Hon’ble CM suggested, when implemented, may do more harm to Nagaland than good’, the release adds.