A village along the Golaghat-Wokha border separating Assam and Nagaland remains without basic amenities like electricity connection as it is caught in a tug-of-war between the two states over who claims ownership over the land. At a distance, the last stretch of the road connecting the two states paints a picture of neglect, as it too is embroiled in a border dispute between the two neighbours.
The village is inside the premises of a seed farm in Nagaland, located in a disputed area in Merapani, with Assam claiming the land is under its Golaghat district and Nagaland claiming it as part of the Wokha border.
“We are caught in this struggle of control between two states and are also deprived of basic amenities. We have no electricity connection, motorable roads or potable water,” said Sajjan Bhengra, a resident of the village.
embroiled in controversy
Mr Bhengra said both the Assam and Nagaland governments had tried several times to provide electricity connections and even erected pillars. But since the village falls under the disputed area, both the governments have to take their counterpart’s consent for any developmental activity and every time one tries to provide electricity, the other government blocks it, Mr. Bhengra he blamed.
The people are voters of the Golaghat constituency in Assam, but the area they live in is within the demarcated precincts of the seed farm in Nagaland.
Established a few years after Nagaland was carved out of Assam, the farm is situated in the midst of villages in Assam and the entire area has been designated as a ‘disputed area’, where the CRPF is deployed to ensure law and order.
Sushila Baga, another villager, said she had mentioned the plight of the villagers more than once to her local MLA Ajanta Neog, who is the finance minister of Assam.
Ajanta ‘Baidev’ (elder sister) comes for meetings in the surrounding areas. I myself told them that we do not even have an electricity connection. They assured me to take it up with Nagaland but nothing has happened so far,” lamented Ms. Baga.
He said that around 30-40 families in his village were given ₹7,000 each by the MLA to install solar lights, but almost all of them were using the money for other urgent needs.
Purba Kurva, a third-generation resident in the area, said that children are not able to continue their education due to lack of connectivity. “We did not get the opportunity to study and now we are earning through menial labour. Now even our children are being deprived of that opportunity. There has been almost no change in the condition of our village since our grandparents settled here.
An 800-metre stretch connecting Golaghat and Wokha, about 8 km from the village, is also mired in a dispute between two neighbours, neither of whom is willing to allow the other to repair it.
Karim Ali, who runs a roadside tea stall, said it was built around 1985 when the dispute between the two states turned bloody and many people, including Assam police personnel, were killed.
‘During the rainy season, there is severe waterlogging here. And during the dry season, it gets so dusty that we have to sprinkle water so that we can sit in our shops.
A local official said Nagaland was ready to repair the section but Assam’s peace committee refused to allow it. “There is a fear that if Nagaland builds the road, it will claim ownership of the area,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
history of stresses
The inter-state boundary dispute broke out after Nagaland was carved out of Assam in 1963. Both the states share a 512.1 km long border.
The Nagaland State Act of 1962 defined its boundaries as per the notification of 1925 when the Naga Hills and Tuensang Area (NHTA) were integrated into a new administrative unit and made an autonomous region.
Nagaland, however, did not accept the boundary delineation and demanded that the new state should include all Naga-dominated areas in the Naga Hills and the erstwhile North Cachar and Nagaon districts of Assam, which were part of the Naga territory, which was annexed by the British. was created by. An 1866 notification.
Since Nagaland did not accept its notified boundaries, tensions between Assam and Nagaland soon flared up, resulting in border clashes for the first time in 1965 and subsequent border skirmishes between the two states in 1968, 1979, 1985, 2007 and 2014. There were big skirmishes.
The Government of Assam had filed a case in the Supreme Court to identify the boundary and settle the boundary disputes which are still pending.