DIMAPUR, JUNE 19 (MExN): The United Naga Tribes Association of Border Areas (UNTABA) today expressed concern at information that the Government of Nagaland has “directed the Land Revenue & Survey Department, District Administration and village authorities to undertake survey on the now infamous ‘Notification of 25/11/1925’.”
A press note from the UNTABA noted that the mentioned notification “has not been mentioned in either ‘Naga Hills - Tuensang Area Act’ of 1957 nor in the ‘State of Nagaland Act’ of 1962 and therefore this notification can never be the basis for inter-state boundary demarcation, the sole reason for litigation process pending for almost 30 years now in the Supreme Court.”
It reminded that the Government of Assam, in its Civil Suit No. 2 of 1988 filed in the Supreme Court against: i) the Ministry of Home Affairs, ii) the Election Commission of India; and, iii) the State of Nagaland, had been insisting and pleading on 1925 Notification to be the basis of inter-state boundary demarcation. “During the process, the Government of Assam unilaterally prepared ‘16 Toposheets’ and ‘22 Toposheets’ so as to justify their claim of 1925 Notification to be the basis of demarcation. However, the Supreme Court had so far denied such unilateral claim in the litigation process undergoing presently,” it added.
The UNTABA questioned “how can the authorities in the Government of Nagaland undertake such erroneous step which are completely detrimental to the historical facts of Naga people over its land and territories? Who will bear such enormous responsibilities?”
It asked the concerned authorities to “desist and stop this unlawful undertaking forthwith in the greater interest of the Naga people’s history.”
