Nagaland Chief Secretary, Alemtemshi Jamir welcoming delegates of the two-day joint meeting of the Border Peace Co-ordination Committees (BPCC) of Assam and Nagaland, Friday evening at Police complex Chumukedima. Also seen are the four mediators appointed by the Supreme Court. (Morung Photo)
DIMAPUR, JUNE 21 (MExN): A two-day joint meeting of the Border Peace Co-ordination Committees of Assam and Nagaland with the co-mediators appointed by the Supreme Court began at Police Complex Chumukedima, Friday evening.
The joint meeting comes at the backdrop of recent spiraling incidents of violence taking place in the border areas. The four co-mediators - Niranjan Bhatt, Sriram Panchu, Priyadarshini Apurva and Aparna Vasu – would be hearing views and suggestions of the border peace committees of both the states and the two-day meeting is likely to come out with strategies on how to peacefully resolve the long-standing border issue between the two neighboring states.
Assam is represented by deputy commissioners of Jorhat, Golaghat and Sivasagar districts, other officials including ADCs and border magistrates and border peace co-ordination committee members of the respective districts.
From Nagaland, the members include Deputy Commissioners of Mon, Mokokchung, Longleng, Dimapur and Wokha districts, former bureaucrats TN Mannen (retd Addl CS), Khekiye K Sema (retd Commissioner & Secretary), T Solo (retd Principal Secretary Forest), LT Konyak (retd Secretary), present Director of Higher & Technical Education, Dr. Toshi Echa, and border peace co-ordination committee members. Earlier, Nagaland chief secretary, Alemtemshi Jamir, welcomed all the delegates; however he did not attend the closed door meeting.
It may be mentioned that border disputes between Assam and Nagaland date back to more than five decades ago with both sides sticking to their contention. In 1988, Assam government filed an original suit with the Supreme Court against the Union of India for identification of the boundaries between the states of Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. More than a decade later, through a directive of the apex court, a committee called the Local Border Commission was constituted headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court. The Local Border Commission however did not have the desired effect and fizzled out. Subsequently, the apex court appointed four mediators in 2010, who have had several rounds of meetings with the Chief Secretaries of both the states since then.
