NEW DELHI: Nagaland Government on Monday expressed its disapproval of the Centre’s proposal to issue border passes to people of the state that shares boundary with Myanmar, saying it would create new difficulties and might disturb peace.
The open border policy followed by the both India and Myanmar should not be disturbed as it was working well, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said here. Noting that the Home Ministry had been advocating issuing of border passes, Mr Rio said he strongly felt that such a move by officials would be ”cumbersome and impracticable”.
He sought to underline that the people living in border areas had taken international boundaries in their stride, but there had been practically no migration across the border because of the land holding system.
”Hence, we should not disturb the present peaceful situation and create a new problem where it did not exist,” Mr Rio said delivering the keynote address at an international conference on Myanmar being held at the Jamia Millia University here.
Neiphiu Rio said the open border policy was especially important for his state because many Naga villages sit right on the international boundary, which happened due to the fact that Indo-Myanmar border was drawn on the basis of watershed, and since Nagas by tradition built villages on the hill tops, many of these villages were cut into two by the international boundary.
”The daily movement of the Naga villagers across the border for their daily Jhum agriculture cultivation and other activities was a necessity,” he said.
Political parties from Myanmar and a number of international and Indian scholars are participating in the two-day conference on the topic of ‘Myanmar:Bridging South and Southeast Asia’ which began here on Monday. (UNI)
