Kohima: In pursue of the bilateral agreement, both the Chief Ministers of Assam and Nagaland met in Guwahati on August 21, where it was resolved to conduct Commissioner-level meetings at regular monthly intervals.
The first commissioner-level consultation was held at the Police Complex Chumukedima, near Dimapur on Saturday.
According to official sources on Sunday, Assam and Nagaland have resumed in all earnestness ‘confidence building’ measures between the two states.
The two neighbouring states have virtually been at loggerheads over disputed borderlands for decades now, with two major upheavals occurring in 2014 alone.
The disputes have claimed at least 14 lives this year. Relations hit a low during the recent clash between people living along the Disputed Area Belt falling between Wokha (Nagaland) and Golaghat (Assam) districts prompting the governments of the two states to initiate certain mechanisms, albeit, through the intervention of the Central Government.
The death toll during the clashes in the Uriamghat (Assam)-Ralan (Nagaland) areas was tipped at 11.
This was preceded by the conflict in the disputed Daldali Reserve forest, which falls on the western fringes of Dimapur district bordering Assam’s Karbi-Anglong district, where, tension began in January culminating with the Assam Police jointly carrying out a flush-out operation with the Assam Forest Department in July.
Three people were killed, primarily during confrontations between the Assam Police and ‘armed miscreants’ reported to be Nagas.
The Assam Police also suffered casualty with as many as five reported injured.
Toshi Aier, Nagaland Additional Chief Secretary and Finance Commissioner said ‘Building trust and confidence between the people of Assam and Nagaland’ is at the core of the initiative, while creating room for more people-to-people contact.
As part of the initiative, Aier said officials of the two state governments met in Dimapur on August 30.
The meeting was in continuance of the proposals made by the Chief Ministers of Assam and Nagaland in Guwahati on August 21, Aier added.
The Assam delegation was led by Syed Iftikhar Hussain, Commissioner of Upper Assam division, while Nagaland was represented by Aier.
The closed-door meeting lasted around four hours.
While, Aier did not elaborate, he stated that Saturday’s meeting was more of an ‘ice-breaking, introductory’ meeting.
He said such meetings will be a monthly feature with the next meeting scheduled in Jorhat in Assam.
The meeting in Jorhat will also have Deputy Commissioners.
He further stated that such meetings will frequently take place at all levels of Government starting from the Chief Secretary to the lower rungs of the administrative set up.
On August 12, Naga miscreants fired on a group of adivasis, resulting in one death. Clashes between Assamese tribals and Nagas broke out soon after, resulting in a total nine deaths and injuring many others. Huts were set on fire, leading the adivasis to seek support of KMSS. Around 8,300 people were displaced in the process. (UNI)
