Nagaland-Assam border is hotting up again. The Rio Government has complained to the Centre that illegal encroachment had taken place into its area from the Assam side along the border of the two states. In a statement, Nagaland Minister in charge of border affairs N Khao Lotha has alleged that people on the Assam side of the border, at the behest of Assam Police were forcibly occupying land belonging to Nagaland. He said Assam had also failed to comply with the agreement it had entered into with Nagaland to withdraw their police from the disputed areas belt (DAB) within a stipulated time. In fact, Assam was setting up more and more border outposts in flagrant violation of the agreement, Lotha complained.

The purpose of keeping neutral forces like CRPF in the disputed belt Is to maintain peace and tranquillity but the purpose is defeated as the CRPF is under the operational command of the IGP (Border) of Assam Police, according to Khao Lotha. He also accused the central forces of biased duty along the disputed inter-state border area “Nagas would continue to be victims of deprivation in their own land plus subject to continued harassment,” he added. The purpose of setting up border outposts by the Assam Government was to encourage and facilitate foreigners to settle down in the disputed areas so that Assam can claim these areas. He further alleged that foreigners were being made to settle in the disputed areas under the physical protection of Assam Government. This was a violation of the agreements of 1972 and1979 between the two states governments, he said and termed the Assam government’s actions as encroachments of an undiluted and pure nature.

Stating that the Assam Government was encouraging illegal immigrants and refugees to settle in the disputed areas, the statement further added that the presence of indigenous Assamese was totally negligible in the area. Denying that Nagas were extracting tax from the Assamese villagers for grazing their cattle in the area, the Nagaland minister clarified that many plots of cultivated land belonging to Nagas particularly in Merapani/ Nagapath and Umrigath sectors had been forcibly occupied by people of Assam under the government’s protection. Knock at VDBS for credit THE Centre has decided to disburse credits through Village Development Board (VDB). The decision was taken to deal with the problem of poor credit linkages in the North-East.

The pilot project is all set to  start in consultation with the Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, State Bank of India, United Bank of India, NABARD, NEDFi and State Government of Nagaland. The objective of the scheme was to test whether the VDBs and VCs (village councils) could work as financial intermediaries to disburse and recover loans for on-farm and non-farm sectors.

For this purpose, the Nagaland Government has identified 25 VDBs. Thee Rural Development Ministry will provide 20 per cent of the corpus fund, which the State Government has agreed to keep at the level of Rs 1 lakh. The Centre’s share towards the corpus fund for the 25 VDBs is estimated to be around Rs 5 lakh, which is to be given as a one-time grant. The Union Government has already agreed to release Rs5 lakh.

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