EMN
DIMAPUR, MAY 30
In a hard-hitting statement, the Japukong Kaketshir Telongjem (Japukong Students’ Conference) on Saturday said that it was “a big embarrassment and humiliating” to see Naga farmers being chased away by armed Assam police personnel right in the presence of Nagaland police at Yajang village in Mokokchung district.
A press statement from the JKM stated that the Assam police has engaged its Nagaland counterparts in a “psychological warfare and we see Nagaland police succumbing to that pressure every day.” The student body termed the scenario as “very painful.”
The statement from the apex student body of Japukong range, under which Yajang village falls, comes in the backdrop of a series of incidents that have resulted in Assam police forcefully preventing villagers of Yajang from cultivating jhum in an area known as “Akochisa pok.”
The JKM pointed out that despite all necessary documentary evidence available with the villagers, the Assam continues to “harass and humiliate Naga farmers” by preventing them from cultivating their land and chasing them away.
It cited the “valid legal document” which has recorded the payment of Rs 70,000 by the Assam-based Kasojan Tea Company on October 18, 2006 to the joint village councils of Yanjang ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ as compensation for damaging plantation and “traditional agricultural land” of Yajang village at “Akochisa pok.”
The JKM stated that the “unabated and illegal act of Assam police” has rendered the visit of the Parliamentary Secretary for Border Affairs, Nagaland and the local MLA on May 23 last to the disputed area, meaningless and a complete mockery.
“It is time that Nagaland government and its responsible legislatures stop playing inter-state party politics at the cost of the indigenous Naga farmers and their traditional land and act fast before the Assam Police set up its own permanent post inside Nagaland,” the JKM suggested.
It called for immediate intervention from the state government to enable the farmers to cultivate their land “without sense of fear and interruptions” from the Assam police. Nagaland government must empower its security force to protect its land and the rights of the people, the JKM said.
