DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 24 (MExN): The United Naga Tribes Association on Border Areas (UNTABA) on Friday said the much awaited solution to the Naga political issue may become unacceptable if the ancestral, traditional, historical and political Naga lands under the “illegal occupation of Assam” is not restored to its rightful owner.
Taking cognizance on the opinions expressed by various authorities including the Home Minister, GoI, RN Ravi, the Interlocutor, officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI and Assam Government including the Chief Minister time and again against the history of the Naga people since the signing of the Framework Agreement, the UNTABA said the “Naga people had never ever claimed other people’s land nor shall we give away even an inch of our ancestral land that is under the illegal occupation of the State of Assam.”
It maintained that Naga lands under Assam State was never a disputed area as willfully and unilaterally enforced by the Government of Assam with the tacit approval from the GoI through the imposition of ‘Assam Disturbed Area Act, 1955’ and ‘Armed Forces (Assam & Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1957' during 1967 in the occupied Naga areas in Assam.
“The Government of Assam cannot simply over-look the history of Naga people over its territories nor can the Government of India prolong its deliberate attempt to allow the Assam Government to forcefully occupy the ancestral, traditional, historical and political Naga lands in Assam,” it pointed out.
The Association also remarked that the present ongoing litigation process of ‘Civil Suit No. 2 of 1988’ in the Supreme Court of India filed by the then AGP Government of Assam in 1988 has taken 3 decades now without any tangible ruling.
Taking this pending case as being subjudiced, the successive Government of Assam have made all the Naga territories in Assam as a buffer-zone for settlement of people of questionable origins allowing various militant groups to operate against the hapless Naga people living in the border areas, the Association stated.
It therefore expressed apprehension that the much awaited solution to the Naga political issue may become unacceptable if the ancestral, traditional, historical and political Naga lands under the “illegal occupation of Assam” is not restored to its rightful owner.
