The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has questioned Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio’s ‘rushed’ agreement with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly explore and extract oil from the disputed border and share the revenue between the states. The Council said it was concerned by the CMs ‘agreeing in principle to go for oil exploration in the disputed areas along the dubious border line of the two sisterly states’.
It stated that while Nagaland is blessed with rich mineral wealth, the state has been unable to ‘explicitly’ explore and earn from them for reasons including ‘the boundary and border problems on the Assam side.’
‘Nagaland always remains peaceful on the border but it is the counterpart Assam that always disputes Nagaland with artificial boundary line and continues to annexe towards Naga land,’ NTC stated. It mentioned that as per the 1875 boundary demarcation of Naga Hills District of Assam, ‘the historical and traditional/ancestral boundary of Nagaland is far beyond the present claim of Assam which needs to be reclaimed immediately.’
In this connection the point 12th of the 16-Point Agreement of 1960 may be drawn for reference, quote: “12. The Naga delegation discussed the question of the inclusion of the Reserved Forests and of contiguous areas inhabited by Nagas. They were referred to the provisions in Article 3 and 4 of the Constitution, prescribing the procedure for the transfer of areas from one state to another” Reserved Forest means the Naga reserved forest transferred to Assam for administrative convenience. “Agreement between Gol and the Naga people of Nagaland is Agreement. However, the historical records and the hard earned 16-Point Agreement of 1960 remains in cold storage for the last 60 years. Once it is resolved, Nagaland can conveniently go for exploration of natural resources including Oil without any hindrance, the council said.
There cannot be a state without definite territory of land, it added.
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NTC stated that the second reason for the state being unable to tap on the ‘rich mineral wealth’ were the ‘defective’ Nagaland Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulations, 2012 and Nagaland Petroleum & Natural Gas Rules, 2012 (NP&NG). ‘In these Regulations and Rules, the rights, privileges and revenue sharing for the beneficiaries, including that of employment of the affected land owner/areas and block have been deprived off.’
The council mentioned the PIL filed by the Lotha Hoho which it later withdrew after signing an MoU on 20th November 2018 with the government of Nagaland on the condition that the grievances as expressed by the Lotha Hoho would be amended within six months.
‘After that it became a Suo Moto case in the honourable Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench but lying unresolved till today,’ it stated, suggesting the State government to finalise the case and amend the rules and regulations before any wishful thinking for Oil Exploration.
There always is a mechanism to resolve differences of all issues grounded on the principle, “in every problem there is a solution and it starts from the grassroots” provided the government takes care of the welfare of the state in general, and the people in particular and live in understanding so that peaceful atmosphere prevails, the Nagaland Tribes Council said.
Read more: Lotha Hoho puts foot down on Oil Exploration in its jurisdiction
