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Assam-Nagaland boundary talks |
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Assam and Nagaland held their first high-level talks of the year in New Delhi last week (Jan. 5) to discuss the issue of a neutral security force along the disputed border belt.
Nagaland Chief Secretary Talitemjen Ao and Commissioner T.N. Mannen represented the State in the talks. The delegation from Assam was led by the State’s Chief Secretary. The two sides also met the Union Home Secretary to explain their positions.
Nagaland has objected to the deployment of the CRPF on the ground that it will not be a “neutral force” as long as it operates under an Inspector General of Police of Assam. “The command arrangement was agreed to by both states, but it has not worked. Given the circumstances, the CRPF units deployed along the border should be commanded by officers of the paramilitary force and not the police,” a senior official said.
Doubts about the neutrality of the CRPF were first raised last year after two Naga youth were killed by the paramilitary force at Merapani checkpoint. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio wrote to the Union Home Ministry after the incident, seeking a change in the command structure of the CRPF units deployed along the border. He claimed to have received complaints from Naga villagers about the CRPF giving Assam police a “free hand”. Nagaland’s attempt to set up a police post there was, however, thwarted. The interim agreement between the two states does not allow either side to set up new police posts.
Assam claims Naga villagers from the bordering district of Wokha continue to encroach on its territory, while Nagaland accuses its neighbour of harbouring Bangladeshi migrants in the area. The border dispute between the two states has been dragging since Nagaland became the 16th State of the Indian Union in 1963. Delhi has constituted several commissions to settle the dispute, but without success.
Assam moved the Supreme Court in 1988, accusing Nagaland of violating the border agreement. In the mid-nineties, the State filed an interlocutory application accusing its neighbour of encroaching on 54,150 hectares of its forests and 3,118 hectares of its revenue area in Jorhat, Golaghat and Sivasagar districts.
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