Assam: Naga settlers set up village, market in Golaghat's Sarupathar area

Naga settlers have allegedly set up a village and a market at Sarupathar in Golaghat district which has drawn sharp criticisms from all quarters.

The Nagas have allegedly set up a village called Chihout village in Mahima village under Chungajan Jagaon panchayat. A market namely Vikit CC market has also been set up by the Nagas.

Earlier, the Nagas had built concrete poles to put up signs at the same place but the Border Magistrate stopped the work.

Locals rued the fact that the Nagas dared to set up a village and a market under Dhansiri Sub-Divisional Administration and border magistrate’s nose.

Assam and Nagaland border dispute is nearly six decades old which saw loss of lives on both sides between 1979 and 1985.The two states share a boundary of 512 km.

Earlier, Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio after discussions with his Assam Counterpart had said that both of the states are in favour of “out of the court” settlement.

Rio had said that delegates of both of the states were scheduled to meet union home minister Amit Shah to discuss the issue. 

Nagaland was made a separate state in 1963.

Earlier in July Assam and Arunachal Pradesh signed the Namsai Agreement to solve decades old border dispute between the two states.

The two states signed an agreement (Namsai Declaration) to end border issues between the two states and decided to “restrict” the number of disputed villages to 86 instead of 123.

Chief Ministers of the two North-eastern neighbours met at Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh and signed the agreement.

The two states share an 804.1 km-long border.

The grievance of Arunachal Pradesh which was made a union territory in 1972 is that several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities were unilaterally transferred to Assam.

After Arunachal Pradesh achieved statehood in 1987, a tripartite committee was appointed which recommended that certain territories be transferred from Assam to Arunachal. Assam contested this and the matter is in the Supreme Court.