Naga Contractor, Senior Manager & Chief Security officer conniving with SULF to extort money
Morung Express News
August 11
DIMAPUR: Around 20 Surrendered United Liberation Front of Asom (SULFA) cadres armed with sophisticated weapons were stationed outside the main entrance of the Dibrugarh Airport, Assam, inside 6 Alto cars on the Morning of August 10, Wednesday to intimidate Naga contractors undertaking contract works at the said airport.
According to an official appraisal to be submitted to the Union Aviation Minister, Press Secretary to the Government of Nagaland, Kedi Haralu, cadres of the SULFA purportedly in connivance with a certain Naga contractor, have been extorting money from Naga contractors who are not allowed to tender contracts without paying 10% to 15% of the said contracts in cash to the extortionists before being permitted to undertake works.
The appraisal demanded that the Naga contractor conniving with the SULF be immediately blacklisted by the AAI NER before ‘communalism and misunderstanding crops up’. Denouncing the airport’s Senior Manager and the Chief Security Officer’s claims of adequate security the appraisal questioned why the Naga contractors were not being provided protection from the threats of the armed cadres and also implied that the illegal practice has been prevalent for some time now. It further alleged that members of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) were also charging Rs. 2OOO per tender and even most of the low-grade staff of the airport were “having a field day taking money from here and there.” It pointed that the works for the Airport were assigned specifically to Naga contractors and the ‘miscreants from Assam’ had no right to demand money from them. They were being openly threatened by gun-totting SULFA cadres, who constantly man the airport to terrorize the contractors, it added.
The statement demanded that the present Tenders be either cancelled or those who have manipulated have their tenders cancelled and re-tendered at Guwahati Executive Regional Director AAI NER office and “not in a lawless place like Dibrugarh”. All tendering should be done the at Dimapur airport and let the Station In-charge be the Nodal Officer while the money spent by the contractors to qualify for the works , preparation of documents as well as for the psychological damage done to the contractors be compensated at the earliest by the Dibrugarh airport. In the event of failure of these options, the statement demanded that security be detailed by the Nagaland Government “with orders to fire when fired upon and to use extreme measures if necessary.”
Demanding that the Station Manager, his officers and the Chief security Officer be booked and necessary disciplinary action be initiated against them for allowing the unwanted situation to take place, the statement called upon the Union Ministry to immediately asses the situation and take measures to eradicate such elements.
