Nagaland govt. should have political will to solve border issue with Assam, says NSF

Our Correspondent

Mokokchung, Dec. 1 (EMN): The Naga Student’s Federation (NSF) has asserted that the border issue with Assam ‘cannot be treated like a law and order problem’; and the state government should display political will to solve it.

Addressing a press conference in Mokokchung on Tuesday, the vice president of NSF, Dieve Yano, said: “We want political will to resolve the border issue. We feel that it should be politically discussed and resolved.”

A team of NSF and AKM (apex Ao student body) officials had visited Tzurangkong range and interacted with Aosenden village council, Tzurangkong Range Naga Youth Front and other stakeholders in the border belt on November 30. They also visited the disputed area where police personnel of both Nagaland and Assam have been deployed since early November.

Yano said the NSF leaders had come to the district to check the ground reality first and initiate proper steps to help resolve the border tension.

Terming it a ‘serious issue’, he said that the state government ‘has to come with a proper means of communication in the years to come, so that our people do not suffer anymore’.

The NSF also assured to remind the state government that the foothill road is “of paramount importance to the people”.

“The foothill road has to be immediately taken up to fulfil the demands of our people,” Yano said.

O Wati Jamir, former general secretary of NSF, said that there is a “very clear indication” that the land has been encroached from Assam.

“We have seen the ground reality there; the Assam police have entered more than a kilometre and erected barricades, which shows that they have encroached,” Jamir said.

“We Nagas are not threatened by the economic blockade. We cannot be threatened on that line. Our people are mentally prepared to face any eventuality,” he asserted, adding that Naga people have been patient “because we want to share a good relationship with our counterparts and since time immemorial, we are having that relationship”.

Also, the NSF supplemented the AKM’s representation to the deputy commissioner of Mokokchung, which includes the demand to complete the construction works at Aosenden village without further delay; and immediate removal of the temporary Assam Police post at Aosenden village to avoid further tension.