Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council’s recent move would create disharmony between the various tribal communities living peacefully as neighbors between the two states.
TFM Nagaland Correspondent
United Naga Tribes Association on Border Areas (UNTABA) on Sunday informed that it has become public knowledge that the Chief Executive Member and his team of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) had offered enough plot of land at Daldali Reserved Forest adjacent to Indisen, Aoyimkum and Rangapahar Army Cantonment area to the Government of Assam for the establishment of Battalion Headquarters and Training Centre for special forces and commandos of armed Assam Police.
UNTABA chairman, Hukavi T Yeputhomi, and general secretary, Imsumongba Pongen, through a joint press statement said that such a move would create more disharmony and frictions between the various tribal communities living peacefully as neighbors between the two states.
Stating that the Naga people may be compelled to resist fiercely such a move so as to maintain peaceful coexistence amongst the people, the statement also reminded once again that the mentioned areas purely fall under the “rightful ownership” of the Naga people that were unilaterally transferred to the then Nowgong district for administrative convenience by the British India Government in the late 19th and early 20th century.
“While the government of Assam has proposed to establish armed police battalions along the Inter-State boundary line, the Government of Nagaland proposing to deploy more personnel in few BOP (Border Observation Posts) is too little too less which shows how serious the Government of the day is on the long-pending border issue,” UNTABA said and further added that if it cannot open new Battalions then the existing Battalions should be brought immediately along the borderlines.
In this regard, the UNTABA said it has put forward certain proposals to the government of Nagaland for immediate considerations which included:
1. There should be Chief Ministerial level meeting immediately so as to conduct a comprehensive review of the Interim Agreements of 1972 & 79 so as to; i) adopt appropriate steps to de-notify the infamous ‘Dispute Area Belt’ (DAB) and remove the ‘DAB’ tag from all the ancestral and historical Naga lands bordering Assam, and ii) Adopt appropriate steps to remove ‘neutral forces’ of Para-military forces (CRPF) and assume directly the Civil and Police Administrations in all these areas.
2. Persuade the Government of Assam to withdraw the infamous ‘Civil Suit No. 2 of 1988’ from the honorable Supreme Court of India so that the inter-state boundary of two states can be settled on a historical basis for all times to come.
UNTABA also reminded that the traditional and historical boundary between the two states is ‘Dhodhar Ali’ or ‘Naga Bund’ that runs from Golaghat to Upper Assam and from Golaghat downward runs from Daigurung river to Kaliani river then to Kopili river down to Barak river.
Further, UNTABA said that until an inter-state boundary solution is brought about on the basis of historical facts, there can never be permanent peace between the two states.