The inter-State boundary between Assam and Nagaland has never been surveyed or demarcated clearly as disposed by the Surveyor General of India in the Supreme Court in the course of litigation process on the “Civil Suit No. 2 of 1988”
By Imna Longchar, TFM Nagaland Special Correspondent
United Naga Tribes Association on Border Areas (UNTABA) on Sunday has demanded the Nagaland Government for amendment in Section 3 and 4 of the State of Nagaland Act 1962 (The Thirteenth Amendment Act).
UNTABA in a letter to Nagaland Chief Minister and copies of the same also addressed to Nagaland Governor and Chief Secretary, stated that it has been almost 60 years since the establishment of Nagaland as the Sixteenth State under the Union of India through an Act of Parliament- The Thirteenth
Amendment Act, 1962.
However, UNTABA said that the inter-State boundary between Assam and Nagaland has never been surveyed or demarcated clearly as disposed by the Surveyor General of India in the Supreme Court in the course of litigation process on the “Civil Suit No. 2 of 1988” and owing to these glaring facts, there has been intermittent clashes, fights and even war between the people of two States since the Statehood of Nagaland in 1963 over the land.
“The First Schedule of the Constitution of India, in entry No. 16 with reference to the State of Nagaland, refers to the territories specified in Sub-Section (1) of Section 3 of the State of Nagaland Act, 1962, and the mentioned Sub-Section (1) of Section 3 with reference to the formation of the State of Nagaland provides that: As from the appointed day, there shall be formed a new State to be known as the State of Nagaland comprising the territories which immediately before that day were comprised in the Naga Hills Tuensang Area and thereupon the said territories shall cease to form part of the State of Assam”, said UNTABA.
Stating that Section 2(e) of the State of Nagaland Act, 1962 Act provides that: Naga HillsTuensang Area means the Naga Hills Tuensang Area specified in Part B of the Table appended to paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, comprising the areas which at the commencement of the Constitution were known as the Naga Hills District and the Naga Tribal Area, UNTABA also said that Points No. 1, 12 and 13 of the 16 Points Agreement of July 1960, between the Naga Peoples Convention and the Government of India for the establishment of a separate Naga State provides that: “The Name: The territories that were hitherto known as the Naga Hills Tuensang Area (NHTA) under the Naga Hills Tuensang Area Act, 1957, and any other Naga areas, which may hereafter come under it shall form a State within the Indian Union and be hereafter known as the Nagaland.
Re-transfer of Reserve Forests: All the Reserved Forests and other Naga areas that were transferred out of Naga area will be returned to Nagaland with a clearly defined boundary under the present settlement; Consolidation of Contiguous Naga Areas: The other Naga tribes inhabiting the areas contiguous to the present Nagaland be allowed to join Nagaland if they so desire. It also added that the State of Nagaland was created of the territories under the NHTA Act without the inclusion of any other Naga areas as claimed in Point No. 1.
With reference to Points No. 12 and 13, UNTABA mentioned that during the deliberation on the 16 Points Agreement, as the Central Government expressed its inability to decide nor accept them at that moment, on the insistence and wishes of the Naga delegates, it was placed on record representing “The facts that the Naga delegates were referred to Articles 3 and 4 of the Constitution of India for transfer of areas from one State to another, namely the Reserved Forests and the contiguous areas inhabited by the Nagas, and that it was not possible for the Government of India to make any commitment in this regard at that stage immediately prior to the formation of the State of Nagaland”, the Government of India remains obligated to the wishes of the Naga people to give effect to the relevant Points No. 1, 12 and 13 of the 16 Points Agreement”.
In the light of the above facts, the UNTABA said the Government of India may be requested to act as per its own commitment and enact necessary amendment in Section 3 and 4 of the State of Nagaland Act, 1962 by invoking the Constitutional provisions of Article 3 and 4 of the Constitution of India to effect re-transfer of Reserve Forests and amalgamate all the Naga territories back to the State of Nagaland and fulfill the above-mentioned clauses of Agreements in letter and spirit.
“From the inception of Statehood in 1963 till date, no successive Government of Nagaland had ever considered this pertinent question to be raised to the Government of India,” UNTABA stated.
Further, the UNTABA has requested the Chief Minister to consider the adoption of Resolution in the august house of Nagaland Legislative Assembly demanding the Government of India to introduce and enact the necessary amendment to this effect so that all the past wrongs could be righted for the Naga people in particular and for greater posterity of all.