Dimapur, May 9 (MExN): The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) has demanded retraction of the ineffectual 1979 Assam-Nagaland border agreement. The organization has demanded deployment of Nagaland police forces in the border areas, building up infrastructure and removing the controversial so-called Central Reserved Police Force (CRPF) posts.
The NSF’s demand – made to the Governor of Nagaland in a representation today – comes close on the heels of another major organization in Nagaland which had demanded retraction of the facile agreement.
The organization issued to the Media today a copy of a representation addressed to the Governor of Nagaland. In the letter the NSF revocation of the agreement aside from removal of the peripherals that the agreement brought about such as the CRPF forces.
The NSF has demanded: revocation of the 1979 agreement made between the chief ministers of Assam and Nagaland; restoration of the Nagaland armed police posts in the border areas with necessary infrastructural facilities; removal of all the CRPF camps and check gates along “public-inhabited” border areas; construction of a foothill road stretching “whole Assam-Nagaland boundary.
Likewise, the NSF has demanded ‘improvement’ and development of road connectivity within the border villages and to categorize the border belt as ‘underdeveloped areas.’
The organization also demanded that the government accord top priority to the development of the border areas through special packages, provision of basic amenities and “requirement for human development.” The NSF also demands a high-ranking bureaucrat in the rank of joint secretary to be designated as border magistrate.
The NSF told the Governor that Nagaland state was created out of an agreement based on the 16-points “memorandum” submitted by the Naga peoples’ convention. That makes obligatory for both the state and central governments to intervene, the NSF said. “It is also pertinent to state here that most of the land belonging to the Naga bordering Assam state have been declared under Disputed Area Belt and thereby covertly converting into buffer zone for the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Adivasis from other parts of the Indian state.”
Further, the NSF said the so-called disputed areas are also turning into a safe haven for militants; this is becoming a menace between the neighboring communities and hampering peaceful coexistence, the organization stated in its representation.
Another matter that the NSF raised was that the Supreme Court of India had directed in 2010 that the border dispute should be resolved through mediation. “In this regard the Supreme Court has even ordered constitution of a panel consisting of two mediators who would work under its supervision. However, no progress has been made so far towards fining an appropriate settlement even after elapse of 8 months of the judgment,” the NSF stated.
