Dispur's efforts not yielding results; 56 cases registered of encroachment, violence

INTER-STATE BOUNDARY SKIRMISHES

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Despite initiating several steps to prevent boundary skirmishes with the neighbouring States, the Assam Government has registered 56 cases of intrusion, encroachment, violence etc., along the inter-State boundary areas so far this year.

When the issue was raised in the ongoing winter session of the Assam Assembly on Tuesday, the House witnessed a noisy scene. Congress MLA from Mariani Rupjyoti Kurmi initially raised the issue and became aggressive while going to inform the House as to how Nagaland was fuelling the inter-State boundary tension with Assam.

Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami pointed out that Kurmi had raised the issue by breaking the decorum of the House, adding that it is not fair to raise such an important issue even before starting of the Question Hour of the House. He even requested to Kurmi to sit down and assured to give him the opportunity to raise the issue the later.

Kurmi, however, did not listen to the Speaker and continued to disrupt the proceeding of the House. The MLA was later taken out of the House by Marshals.

On the other hand, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has been writing to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and his counterparts in Nagaland and Mizoram on the issue.

On November 2 this year, Sonowal wrote to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his intervention to defuse the boundary tension between Assam and Mizoram.

On November 29, State Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah wrote to his counterpart in Nagaland stating that the neighbouring State was carrying out illegal construction at the 'Dessoi Valley Reserve Forest' which is under the territorial jurisdiction of Assam. Baruah also said that if such illegal activities continued it would lead to unwanted border tension.

The State Chief Secretary also wrote to the Union Home Secretary stating that encroachments of areas in the Assam's side of the inter-State boundary by neighbouring States must be stopped.

On December 4 this year, the Commissioner & Secretary of Border Development wrote to the Joint Secretary of Union Ministry of Home Affairs informing the latter that Mizoram had deployed armed forces in the boundary areas which legally fall under Assam's jurisdiction. Intervention of the Home Ministry was sought to solve the issue.

It may be mentioned that the Union Home Ministry has already appointed nodal officers for each NE State to assess the ground situation on the boundary; and send reports to the Centre to carry out timely action to defuse the inter-State boundary tension. But it seems that no effort both on the part of the Assam Government and the Centre is yielding the desired results with reference to the boundary skirmishes.

Raising the issue in the Assam Assembly on Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia said aggression on the boundary areas must come to an end. He also requested the Speaker to withdraw the suspension order of Rupjyoti Kurmi. The Speaker responded positively to Saikia's request.

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