DIMAPUR, JAN 12 (MExN): Amidst reports of the All Assam Students’ Union dotting flags along border areas of Assam and Nagaland to demarcate the boundaries, Nagaland Commissioner TN Mannen today wrote to his counterpart in Upper Assam, asking him not to allow “such unnecessary provocation.” Assam, it appears, is more aware of such issues as compared to the Nagas, the Commissioner said.
It has also been learnt that a team of Lotha Students’ Union representatives who had left Wokha yesterday, January 11, to Ralan Area, have yet to return home. The Lotha students had said they would return home yesterday evening, a relative of LSU chief Nzanthung K Yanthan said.
When contacted, Industries Minister Khekiho Zhimomi said he did not wish to make a ‘presumptuous’ statement at the moment as he had not received any official reports of the prevailing situation in the area of concern, and also because the issue is a sensitive one.
NSF President Pushika Aomi has also not received any intimation as yet. He said any action would depend on the reports his office receives. The area where AASU members reportedly lined the flags is said to suffer from poor communication problems.
From Geleky in Assam, an analyst known to both the Assamese and the Nagas as a friend, spoke to The Morung Express over phone and said relations between the public is ‘cordial’. Geleky is located near the Naga villages of Anaki A, B and C and also Anaki Yimsen.
The bone of contention is “politically-motivated moves,” he said, and added that it was the big companies - tea estates in this case - which are encroaching on Naga soil. The mistake, on the part of Nagaland, is initiating action against the tea estates without prior consultations with the local Assamese populace.
