Assam Police, villagers allegedly destroy plantations at Yajang ‘C’ village, again

Our Correspondent
Mokokchung, June 26 (EMN): The border village of Yajang ‘C’ in Mokokchung district yet again witnessed vandalism of around six hectare of cultivated land including plantations and jhum fields allegedly initiated by Assam Police and Rumkum Basti villagers (Jorhat district, Assam) on Sunday.

Two such incidents had occurred in April and May where Assam Police personnel and Rumkum Basti villagers destroyed tea and areca plantations of Yajang C villagers.   

Yajang C Village Council Chairman, Imtionen Aier, alleged that around 200 villagers from Rumkum Basti and around 40 Assam police personnel came to the cultivated fields at around 10:30 am on Sunday when all villagers were gathered for Sunday mass and police patrolling party was absent.   

The alleged groups destroyed areca, agar, rubber and tea plantations, nurseries, huts, farm equipment and facilities, to the extent of spraying harmful chemicals in the jhum paddy fields, Aier claimed.

EAC Longchem, Yapangmenla, also confirmed that the incident had happened, and the farm land allegedly vandalised by Assam Police personnel and Rumkum Basti villagers may be worth in lakhs.

Aier added that some of the areca and rubber plants were recently replaced after the last incident. However, there were plantations which were cut down after years of nursing, which is a huge loss for the famers who have invested both monetarily and time for a long period, he added.

‘They did not spare the nurseries and paddy fields, (they) ransacked everything; the cutting down of saplings and trees in the various plantations account up to thousands in numbers’, he said.

‘The epicenter of the incident site is just a few metres away from the border as claimed by Yajang C villager,’ said EAC Longchem.

The Village Council Chairman also claimed that the Assam Police came to the fields when patrolling police was absent and harassed the farmers who were working in the fields stating that “the land is theirs.”

“Last Tuesday, a group of Assam Police personnel came to the field at around 4:30 pm when the police patrolling party was absent.

“They harassed the women working in the field; not to cultivate the fields and stop their activities claiming the land belongs to them and even snatched away agriculture tools and saplings; they even went to the extent of searching the women’s bags which were hanging in the huts,” Aier claimed. He added that there is no accountability on the part of Assam even after such incidents.

Nagaland Police from Longchem HQ had also reached the village to establish a preliminary investigation, at the time of filing this report.