It is heartening to note that Ministers and Officials of Nagaland state had visited Saring Village and other trouble spots along Assam-Nagaland Border areas on 6-7th June, 2013 assuring people of the Government’s determination to protect land from encroachments from Assam side and also explaining the violation of Interim Agreements made in 1972 and 1979. In order to enlighten the public as to what these Agreements meant and how they were not implemented as agreed upon by the parties, it is felt proper to bring out some salient features. There were 4(four) Interim Agreements between Assam and Nagaland in 1972 and 2(two) in 1979. They were drawn up as temporary measures to prevent frequent border clashes between the people of the two states. These agreements of 1972 relate to:–
a) Geleky R/F and a portion of Amguri-Tuli Road (31/3/1972)
b) Teok River to Desoi River (31/3/1972)
c) Desoi River to Gorarjan Stream (2/5/1972)Kakadanga to Doyang River
d) Gorarjan to Kakadanga (23/5/1972)
2. Salient feature of the Interim Agreements of 1972 are:-
i) All Armed Police Posts within and near Reserved Forests would be withdrawn within a week by both the States.
ii) No new post would be set up by either side.
iii) Assam Government agreed to continue to recognize all those forests as Reserved Forests and no new lease or contract would be entered.
iv) Within 15 days, all leases and contracts given earlier would be furnished by Assam Government.
v) No new settlement of encroachment shall be allowed in all R/F.
vi) The Naga Settlements that existed within the forest should not be disturbed.
vii) In Kakadanga R/F, cultivation done by Yimpang/Champang, Old and New Tssori would continue undisturbed.
3. 1979 Interim Agreement (28/01/79 Shillong, 11/04/79 New Delhi):
Again, the salient features of 1979 Agreement involving the Chief Ministers of Assam and Nagaland, with Common Governor and with Home Minister, Government of India, are briefly as under:–
i) Assam Armed Police would be withdrawn from predominantly Naga inhabited areas in Diphu, Nambor and Rengma R/F area and replaced by CRPF and Assam Rifles as Neutral Forces.
ii) Nagaland Police post would also be withdrawn from Diphu, Nambor and Regma R/F areas.
iii) Search and arrest in Naga habitation would be made only in the presence of Magistrate and Civil Police Officials from both the States.
iv) The two IGP’s would jointly work out the allocation of different sectors in the Naga inhabited villages between the CRPF and the Assam Rifle Forces.
v) The overall operation command of the CRPF and Assam Rifles would be under the Addl. I.G. Assam who would be assisted by D.I.G. of Police from the two states.
Ground Rules made on 11/4/1979 in New Delhi had reiterated the terms and conditions made earlier.
4. Some observations on violations of these Agreements:
The terms and conditions by and large are not unfair but Assam side had not honored the agreement right from the beginning.
Firstly, while Nagaland Police Outposts established earlier were withdrawn as per above mentioned agreements, Assam Government had instead increased their Police Outposts to 48 in all sectors. Further, 20 CRPF posts were brought under Assam State command.
Secondly, there are serious land encroachments going on in all sectors from Assam side such as, loss of land in Merapani Agri Farm area, Yimpang, Alikhum Village, Lio Longidang Village. In Champang and Tssori Old and New Villages (in spite of the specific mention in the 1972 agreement) Muthehe Village, Amboto Village, Woriamghat sector, Aokum Village, Tsurmen, Akomen, Yanglok and Ladigarh area and there are countless of such encroachment cases. In total violation of all the agreements, unabated settlements in all the Reserved Forests kept under the custody of Assam Government are going on from Assam side. For instance, on the basis of a resolution passed in the Assam Assembly unilaterally abrogating the tri-partite Interim Agreement of 1979, pre-Oct 1980, settlement of large number of people of Assam in the R/F of Doyang and Gohpur among others were regularized in blatant violation of the Interim Agreement. Nagaland had protested but in vain. The justification given was that they were indigenous people, but it is a fact that those areas were Naga territory till they were converted into R/F by British Rulers on 31/07/1888. In fact, this R/F is one of those which were delineated from Naga territory without the knowledge of the Naga people for which Nagaland is demanding to return to the Nagas.
Thirdly, the CRPF posted as the Neutral Force, as per the Interim Agreement of 1979 made at the highest level of the two Chief Ministers and Home Minister, Govt. of India, not favoring any party without valid reason are not behaving so, perhaps, due to inherent defective command structure. The greatest mistake was agreeing to place them under the Command of Addl. I.G. of Police, Assam. They are clearly acting as part of Assam Police, which is evident from the Standing Order to Police (SoP) issued to Neutral Force, as per Memo No.R/248/2017-5 Dist. Jorhat Dt. May, 24th,1983 from M. M. Sarkar, D.I.G. (ER), Jorhat.
Contrary to the terms of the Interim Agreement, that order was issued unilaterally without consulting Nagaland. The order is also highly prejudiced towards Nagaland. For instance, it says that Assam-Nagaland border area is covered by “Assam Disturbed Area Act” of 1955 and The Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 which gives power to the Armed Forces to arrest or detain any person on mere suspicion. DC & SP’s Sibsagar and Jorhat Districts are authorized to control, command and instruct the Neutral Force posted in all Disturbed Border Areas. They will also provide protection to Assam Government Officials of Forest and P.W.D. in those R/F areas. In the process, the ground reality is that the “Neutrality” of the Neutral Force is very much missing. In the circumstances, there is every justification to demand revision of these Interim Agreements or scrapping them completely since Assam side is deliberately dishonoring them.
It is thus right from the start Assam side had never intended to implement these Interim Agreements and have been blatantly flouting them and shamelessly accusing Nagaland side of violation and encroachment to cover up their wrong acts. Assam has never been a trustworthy neighbour. Nagas must try to be more alert and watchful. Since the minister in charge of Border had assured the affected people that not an inch of Naga land would be allowed to be taken away by others, we need to cooperate fully to see that the promise is real.
T.N. Mannen, IAS (Rtd.)
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