DIMAPUR, MAY 28 (MExN): The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) has lauded the efforts put in by K.A Asungba Sangtam former Congress Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Nagaland and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for personally intervening and requesting the Assam Government to reconsider its earlier order of February 15, 2007, wherein the Revenue Department of the Assam Government had asked the Council of Baptist Churches in North East India (CBCNEI) to hand over the land to the Guwahati Municipal Development Authority for the construction of a multi-storied car parking. The land in question is the present site of the headquarters of the CBCNEI in Guwahati.
“Various representations from different sections of the people have gone to the office of the Chief Minister of Assam to revoke the order. But a resolute mind of the Government was sensed. The churches were pleading to God if this land could be saved for the genuine ministries the council has been carrying to the people”, stated Zhabu Terhüja General Secretary NBCC in a press note while appreciating Sangtam and Gandhi pointed out that “God always works through different people and different means”.
As a result, the NBCC informed that the Assam Government wrote to the Council on April 23, 2007 that the land was no more required. “We praise God for this good news, and we are grateful to both Mr. Asungba and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. May God bless them in return”, Rev Terhuja stated.
The NBCC stated that the present site of the headquarters of the CBCNEI in Guwahati was at one time a dread to the people. “The American Baptist Mission took it and developed slowly. Later the Government asked again some portion of it for Medical College so in 1957 some areas were given away where the MM Chowdhury Hospital now stands”, it was further informed.
The CBCNEI campus is the centre of the Baptist churches in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya (Garo), Nagaland, Karbi Anglong and Arunachal Pradesh who make up a community of 9, 36, 710 baptized members and a total community of about 3 million. The CBCNEI engages in various social and spiritual services. The early missionaries who settled in Assam were popularly noted for the preservation of Assamese language and protecting it from going extinct. The first Assamese news paper Arunudoi, started by the missionaries, laid the foundation for ‘modern media,’ the NBCC release further informed.
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