Kohima, Oct 16 (IANS): Amidst growing tension, Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Y. Patton, accompanied by senior officials, visited two villages under the disputed Tuli area of Mokokchung district and assured the villagers to resolve the ongoing border row with neighbouring Assam, officials said on Wednesday.
Patton, who also holds the portfolio for Home and Border Affairs, and the officials accompanying him, on Tuesday inspected key areas of concern, including the Assam Police Commando Battalion camp at Septsuyong Lu in Kangtsung Village and Wameken Yimsen village.
A senior official said that the visit aimed to assess the situation on the ground and engage with local stakeholders amid growing tensions in the border area.
During discussions with the villagers and representatives of ‘Ao Senden’ (Ao tribal community’s apex body), Patton, also the BJP legislature party leader in Nagaland, highlighted that the Nagaland cabinet had held a meeting on October 9 to deliberate on the matter, emphasising the government’s serious approach to resolving the inter-state border dispute. He informed the villagers that letters had been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to address the issue and that the state cabinet would once again discuss the matter soon.
Patton also urged the villagers not to sell their land to non-indigenous people, stressing the importance of preserving local land ownership in the region.
During the visit, Patton was accompanied by Advisor for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources A Pangjung Jamir, Home Secretary Vyasan R., Director General of Police Rupin Sharma. and the officials of district administration.
The ‘Ao Senden’ had earlier requested Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio for urgent intervention regarding the reported construction of an Assam Police Commando Battalion camp at Septsuyong Lu.
In their letter, the Ao Senden said that since January 2022, various organisations had sought intervention from the state government on multiple occasions through representations, concerning the alleged encroachments by Assam Police on Kangtsung village’s traditional land.
Despite these efforts, the Ao Senden claimed that no response or action had been taken by the Nagaland government. Assam shares a 512-km-long border with Nagaland and several patches of the inter-state border are disputed and the two states are now in parley to resolve the dispute.
After a series of top-level meetings, the Assam and Nagaland governments in 2021 withdrew their respective forces from the disputed sites. Though the decades-old Nagaland and Assam border dispute cases have been pending in the Supreme Court for many years, the Chief Ministers of the two states held several meetings and are trying to settle the issues out of court. Many people have been killed, most of them on the Assam side, in the attacks by armed attackers from Nagaland in different incidents in 1979, 1985, 2007, and 2014.