NAGALAND-ASSAM BORDER ISSUE
DIMAPUR, JUNE 19: The United Naga Tribes Association of Border Areas (UNTABA) has demanded the state government to desist from undertaking any survey for demarcation of border land between Nagaland and Assam on the basis of 1925 notification, saying it is completely detrimental to the historical facts of Naga people over their land and territories.
Quoting reliable sources, the UNTABA in a statement said, the Government of Nagaland (GoN) has directed the Land Revenue & Survey Department, district administration and village authorities to undertake survey on the now infamous ‘Notification of 25/11/1925’.
UNTABA Chairman, Hukavi T. Yeputhomi and Joint Secretary, Ruchuyhun Keppen noted that the ‘notification’ has not been mentioned in either ‘Naga Hills - Tuensang Area Act’ of 1957 nor in the ‘State of Nagaland Act’ of 1962 and that it can never be the basis for inter-state boundary demarcation as it is under litigation process pending for almost 30 years in the Supreme Court.
“The Government of Assam (GoA), in its Civil Suit No. 2 of 1988 filed in the honorable Supreme Court against: i) the Ministry of Home Affairs, ii) the Election Commission of India; and, iii) the State of Nagaland, had been insisting and pleading on 1925 Notification to be the basis of inter-state boundary demarcation.
During the process, the GoA unilaterally prepared ‘16 Toposheets’ and ‘22 Toposheets’ so as to justify their claim of 1925 Notification to be the basis of demarcation. However, the Supreme Court had so far denied such unilateral claim in the litigation process undergoing presently. When the fact of the issue is such, how can the authorities in the GoN undertake such erroneous step which is completely detrimental to the historical facts of Naga people over its land and territories? Who will bear such enormous responsibilities?”
