Dimapur, November 18 (MExN): Western Sümi Youth Front (WSYF) has expressed concern over a 10-day ultimatum served by Lamhainamdi villagers on November 15, demanding that the state government to immediately withdraw “biased police personnel” and also lift “biased status quo order” on the area.
While the 14 members of Lamhainamdi village belonging to various tribes including the village council chairman had declared in the ultimatum that the villagers would carry out full scale development works after the expiry the 10-day deadline and also “act appropriately against any aggressors in defence of their life and property,” the WSYF argued that the “misconceived ultimatums challenging the Government Orders which are in effect for maintaining peace and order further threatens the very sanctity of the effected Western Sümi Villages.”
Therefore, it is with much urgency that WSYF calls upon all right thinking citizens to uphold the truth and the concerned authority to evict the illegal settlement from the Western Sümi Village land as per standing Government Orders, it added. WSYF claimed that there have been “consistent attempts to create an atmosphere of confusion amongst the Naga brothers to portray the bonafide Sümi village/villagers of Western Sümi Areas as land grabbers” and to justify what it termed as “encroachment activities upon legitimate Western Sümi Village land.”
It also said that the Zeliangrong Youth Organisation Nagaland (ZYON) on November 15, “made certain claims which defies rational intellect inasmuch as the question of British suzerainty over Naga Country back then is a historical fact and the same cannot be overturned or twisted to suit a present day situation.”
“Likewise, the claims of the ZYON that Sümis came and obtained NOC from Lamhai thereby paying 4 annas to Zeliangs remains bereft of historical facts and thus belied, and in fact ,as per the official records written by the then ADC Peren, many Zeliang brothers carried out cultivation in Western Sümi’s Land by paying taxes,” it maintained.
WSYF said that it is an “undeniable historical fact that the Western Sümi Areas including the present day Kiyevi Village has been continuously inhabited by the Western Sümis ever since the British Raj. And to bring things into perspective of historical facts, it is pertinent to point out that the act of encroachment and subsequent setting up of a fresh and new settlement such as the so called ‘Lamhainamdi’ within the well accepted western Sümi village lands is preposterous and unacceptable under any pretexts.” Based upon these ‘historical facts,’ the affected Western Sümis have exercised restraint, it maintained while highlighting that the concerned authority had on a couple of occasions passed orders in for maintaining peace and “for removal of illegal settlements.” “It is however, unfortunate that illegal activities have been perpetrated despite standing Government orders, provoking hostilities by making unverifiable and cooked up stories to justify illegal encroachment upon Western Sümi Village Lands,” it added. Lamenting that some individuals “taking the name of tribes had issued statement…which is provocative in nature,” the WSYF stated that “one should not get involved without knowing the historical fact and tarnish the image one’s tribe.”
