Guwahati: Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday asserted that there was no reason to worry about loss of any territory of Assam in the event of signing of an agreement between the Centre and Naga rebel group NSCN(IM) as culmination of the on-going Naga peace process.
“The stand of the Assam government is clear; we will not let any change to the state’s geography in the wake of the Framework Agreement (between the NSCN-IM and the Centre). The people of Assam has vested the responsibility on our government to protect the territorial integrity of the state and we are committed to ensure this,” Sonowal said at a public function at Sonari in Charaideo district in upper Assam that shares inter-state boundary with Nagaland.
Sonowal’s statement came in the wake of some groups of the state expressing apprehension that a sizeable portion of Assam’s territory adjoining Nagaland would be included in Nagaland once the Centre finalises the terms of the Framework Agreement that it had signed with the NSCN(IM) on August 3, 2015.
While the contents of the Framework Agreement have not yet been made public, several groups in Assam, including the opposition Congress and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) have alleged that the BJP-led governments at the Centre and Assam had agreed to the NSCN(IM) demand for inclusion of sizeable portion of Assam territory in the ‘Greater Nagalim’.