Due to disputes of border villages lacks of basic need of electricity

Merapani: A village along the Golaghat-Wokha border is deprived of basic amenities like electricity connection, as it is caught in a conflict between Assam and Nagaland with both states claiming ownership of the land.

At a distance, the last stretch of road connecting the two states presents a picture of neglect, as it too is mired in a border dispute between the two neighbours.
The village is within the premises of the Nagaland Seed Farm, located in a disputed area of ​​Merapani in which Assam claims land under its Golaghat district and Nagaland claims it as part of the Wokha border.
“We are stuck in this control struggle between the two states and are deprived of even basic amenities. We have no electricity connection, motorable road or drinking water,” a resident Sajjan Bhengra told PTI. told.

He said that both the Assam and Nagaland governments tried many times to provide electricity connection and even poles were installed.
But since it falls under the disputed territory, both the governments have to take their respective counterparts’ consent for any development activity and every time, the other government has put the spanner on trying to provide electricity, Bhengra alleged. .

People are voters of Golaghat constituency in Assam, but the area where they live is within the designated area of ​​Nagaland’s seed farm.
Established a few years after the separation of Nagaland from Assam, the farm is located in the midst of Assamese villages and the entire area is declared a disputed territory, where the CRPF is deployed to ensure law and order. Is.

Sushila Baga, another villager, said she had mentioned the plight of the villagers more than once to her local MLA Ajanta Neog, who is Assam’s finance minister.
“Ajanta baidew’ (elder sister) comes for meetings in nearby areas. I myself told her that we don’t even have electricity connection. She assured me to take up with Nagaland but nothing has happened yet, He lamented.
Baga added that about 30-40 families in his village were given Rs 7,000 each by Neog to install solar lights, but almost all of them used the money for other essential needs.

Purba Kurwa, a third-generation settler, pointed out that children are not able to get their education due to lack of connectivity.
“We didn’t get an opportunity to get an education and now we are earning through menial labor. Now our children are also missing out on this opportunity. The condition of our village has almost changed since our grandparents settled here. ” They said.

Somnath Subba, an elderly trader from a nearby village, said families from the Adivasi community came as laborers when the seed farm was being set up.
“We see the plight of people who are without roads, bridges or electricity. We request the governments of both the states to come together and work out how to provide them with these basic amenities.

The 800-meter stretch connecting Golaghat and Wokha, about 8 km from the village, is also mired in a dispute between two neighbours, with neither willing to allow the other to repair it.
Karim Ali, who runs a roadside tea stall, said it was built around 1985 when the conflict between the two states turned bloody and many people, including Assam police personnel, were killed.
“During the rainy season, the water accumulates heavily. And in the dry season, it becomes so dusty that we have to sprinkle water so that we can sit on our shops.”

A local official said that Nagaland is ready to repair the section but Assam’s peace committee has refused to allow it.
“There is fear that if Nagaland builds the road, it will claim ownership of the area,” claimed the official, who did not want to be named.

The inter-state border dispute started after the separation of Nagaland state from Assam in 1963. The two states share a border of 512.1 km.
The Nagaland State Act of 1962 defined its boundaries as per a notification of 1925 when the Naga Hills and Tuensang Area (NHTA) was merged into a new administrative unit to form an autonomous region.
Nagaland, however, did not accept the delimitation and demanded that the new state should consist of all the Naga-majority areas of the Naga Hills and the then North Cachar and Nagaon districts of Assam, which were part of the Naga territory, which the British claimed as a It was made according to the law. Notice of 1866.
As Nagaland did not accept its notified boundaries, tensions between Assam and Nagaland soon flared up, leading to border clashes first in 1965, and later in 1968, 1979, 1985, 2007 and 2014 on both sides of the border. There were major clashes between the states.

The Assam government had filed a case in the Supreme Court for demarcation and settlement of border disputes, which is still pending.