Border solution: Zeliang told to apply 16-point pact

Dimapur, October 18 : The United Naga Tribes Association on Border Areas (UNTABA) has declared that if there should be a settlement of the Assam-Nagaland, solution must be on the basis of the 9- and 16-point agreement.

The UNTABA issued a statement on Tuesday noting the Assam and Nagaland chief ministers meeting on October 17. The organization stated that the interim government of India entered into political agreement with the Naga people in line with accession agreement of other princely states of India on June 27-29, 1947, at Kohima in order to bring Naga people in the Union of India.
It was popularly called the 9-points agreement signed by none other than Akbar Hydari Ali, the then governor and Gobinath Bordoloi, the then premier of Assam province and the representatives of the NNC (Naga National Council). It had a number of terms and conditions, the organization stated.

The terms were: “That the present administration divisions should be modified so as:- (i) to bring back into the Naga Hills District all the Forests transferred to Sibsagar and Nowgong Districts in the past; and (ii) to bring under one unified administrative unit as far as possible all Nagas. All the areas so included will be within the scope of the present proposed agreement. No area should be transferred out of Naga Hill without the consent of the Naga National Council”.

Accordingly, the union stated, during the creation of Nagaland as the 16th state in the Union of India on the basis of the 16-Points Agreement of July 1960, the point-one of the agreement clearly defined the Naga territories “the name: the territories that were hitherto known as the Naga Hills–Tuensang Area under the Naga Hills–Tuensang Area Act, 1957, and any other Naga areas, which may hereafter come under it shall form a State within the Indian Union and be hereafter known as the Nagaland.”

Re-transfer of Reserve Forests: All the Reserved Forests and other Naga areas that were transferred out of Naga area will be returned to Nagaland with a clearly defined boundary under the present settlement.”

Consolidation of Contiguous Naga Areas: The other Naga tribes inhabiting the areas contiguous to the present Nagaland be allowed to join Nagaland if they so desire.”

“Therefore, if at all the boundary issue between the two states has to be settled amicably as proposed by the chief ministers of the two states, it has to be on the basis of the above facts of agreements – 9 Points and 16 Points Agreements,” the organization stated.

The organization lamented that the failure of the government of India to fulfil its promises as were made in the agreements left Nagaland without a defined and specified boundary till date as clearly stated by the Surveyor General of India.

“Due to such lapses on the part of the government of India, the Assam Government is fighting a proxy war against the Naga people in the Supreme Court since 1988 praying for declaring the Inner Line as the boundary of Assam and Nagaland,” the organization added.