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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE Assam Nagaland border dispute engaged a part of my time expenditure in Wokha. I had earlier visited some of the areas in the Ralan adjoining administrative circle but the Yimpang, Naga Path was the most disturbed sectors. Mr. Nyimkhomo Ezung the Head GB of Yimpang Village had a reputation of being a tough character among his peers but he was helplessly evicted from his double storied kheti house where the Assam Police had set up their outpost in this house. He and his Villagers were unable to carry out their normal wet field cultivation due to constant harassment by the Assam Police. What was most frustrating was that after every Inter-State Level Border Agreements enacted with Assam, Nagaland would faithfully and honourably withdraw its’ NAP Camps while Assam would expand on their existing ones instead, rather than withdraw as agreed. Nagaland has generally learned no lessons from these experiences. This was one such case. An NAP Company HQs was in existence in this neighbourhood but had been withdrawn after one of the interim border Agreements. While Assam too were to withdraw their encampments in the Naga Path vicinity, they did not do so and instead advanced further into the physically controlled permanent wet field cultivation area belonging to the Lothas. Our Lotha brothers were also responsible for compounding the problems by placing questionable IBIs in their khetis for sharecropping and who would later cross the loyalty boundary towards Assam. Such stories abound. I did what I could to discourage this practice but old habits die hard.
In the process a whole lot of ground has been forfeited to Assam. An extensive documentary video-graphing of the entire sector was made. Assam has its own problem of IBIs but the politicians there too use them as a vote bank and have been rampantly rehabilitating them in the dispute areas adjoining the foothill sector of Nagaland where the legitimate Assamese were not inclined to settle for fear of Naga reprisal. The situation was different in the case of IBIs who were prepared to rough it out no matter what the danger. A District level meeting with my counterpart DC Golaghat was scheduled in the kheti of the Head GB of Yimpang village. The SP Wokha along with his men in strength accompanied me for this co-ordination meeting. When we arrived the location, the Assam Police, stationed in Mr. Nyimkhomo Head GB’s pani kheti house had apparently not been informed. The officer in command became rather apprehensive seeing our armed NAP jawans swarm the whole parameter and quietly made a hasty retreat, vacating the GB’s building. We had an internal information that Assam was planning to rehabilitate a huge number of Brahmaputra valley flood victims in this area. On closer scrutiny we discovered cross marks cut into the hard earth all over the fields which were lying fallow, unable to be cultivated due to Assam Police harassment and restriction. These were site allotment markings on the ground. There were clear indications of an elaborate site allotment being designed in the entire border expanse. When the DC Golaghat arrived, he was shown these landmarks but he denied any knowledge of a resettlement plan…with discomfort written all over his face. His accompanying SP was beginning to aggressively butt in into our discussion and so I finally had to ask him to keep his opinion to himself as this was a one to one interaction with his DC. I had the whole episode videographed along with the rest of the border dispute area settlements by Assam. A strong recommendation that the NAP be redeployed in this sector as before was submitted to the Government. I was sorely tempted to unilaterally deploy our NAP at the Head GB’s compound then and there but we were not sufficiently prepared for that and it would have surely provoked unwanted reaction from both ends…Government of Assam and our own State Government. In the end better senses prevailed…lighting candles from both ends would only result in burning my own fingers eventually. DC Golaghat was requested not to deploy unauthorised AP post in this sector which clearly belonged to the Lothas. I questioned the eviction of the Head GB from his land and the occupation of the GB’s house by the AP. The DC Golaghat was not too well informed about how this questionable AP camp had been established but remained non-committal regarding its withdrawal. The cassette was reviewed with Mr. Gokhale, Chief Secretary and Mr. Talitemjen, Commissioner in Mr. Gokhale’s official residence…but as usual, nothing substantial happened. Despite the critical nature of the border dispute, the Government of Nagaland has maintained a rather indifferent attitude all throughout. Border Magistrates have no facilities provided to make their work easier. No proper accommodation exist with just a skeletal support staff. As a result no real productive work is produced from these ranks, who often look at these postings as a punishment posting. Meanwhile our border areas are being flooded by IBIs year after year. A focused attention needs to be paid to the border issues if we are to salvage our own. A more aggressive attendance is called for, providing elementary conveniences to the Border Magistrates.
All in all, the Wokha stint was personally a productive tenure by way of gaining more insights and experiences in the field. It was past 8 months already and my transfer was still not in sight. On my next visit to Kohima, I reminded Mr. Gokhale that he was showing signs of poor calculative infirmities. The six months deployment agreement had long since passed and the election was now round the corner. I would get bogged down at Wokha if it was announced and so requested him to keep his promise. He did…on the ninth month. I received my 21st transfer in a 22year service on 3rd May 1999 as Secretary Horticulture. After a warm farewell send off I reported for duty at Kohima. However I was informed by the Chief Secretary that there was some problem regarding my assignment in Horticulture Department. Apparently the then Hon’ble Minister was not feeling too comfortable with my joining his department and had repeatedly been requesting him and the Chief Minister not to have me sent to his department. It turned out that Mr. Yamakum, the Minister in charge of Horticulture Department, had still not forgotten the Kiphire incident where I had made him sign the good behaviour bond of Rs.1.00 lakh in relation to the Yimchungru-Tikhir confrontation in 1984. I was advised to temporarily submit my joining report to P&AR Department until my final posting could be sorted out. I joined P&AR Department. Finally, on 21st May 1999, my 22nd transfer order in 22year of service as Secretary Housing was received.
Housing department was a mundane period dealing with house building loans to the Government servants. Other than ensuring legitimate applicants being given loans without harassment, which seemed to have been a rather frequent occurrence in the department prior to my take over, there was nothing much to write home about. I can only remember a condemned Government building, a girl’s hostel at Zunheboto, being written off and being allotted to the Aizuto Mission Field for construction of their Church in Zunheboto Town.
On 6th September 1999 I was assigned an additional charge as Team Leader of Nagaland Environment Protection and Economic Development (NEPED) a Canadian funded project under ICEF. The first chapter of NEPED Project had very successfully generated extensive tree plantation in both the urban and rural sectors as a serious focus under the stewardship of Mr. K. Kevichusa as its Team Leader. Riding on the first phase success story the second phase was commissioned with an emphasis on economic development in the rural sectors. Each selected village would receive a lump sum revolving capital of Rs.8-00 lakhs from which village beneficiaries would be transparently selected in coordination with the POU members for loans…which would be recovered on instalment basis from the investment returns within a realistic and reasonable time frame. This process would continue to cover as many beneficiaries throughout the Project period of five years. The POU members began the first exercise of village identification in each District with a common selection criteria of villages which had shown good performance in the first phase coupled with all season accessibility for a fluent project supervision. POU members were strictly warned that inability to reach the village would not be accepted as an excuse once the selection was confirmed…they would be expected to walk the distance if necessary. When the final list of selected villages was submitted for Government approval, it provoked an unpleasant resentment at the highest level for having done so without the consultation of the Political bosses. In fact that was a very deliberate effort to ensure legitimate selection criteria based on merit rather than have it pilfered through political interference in the selection process. I refused to make any further alterations after the POU members had slogged for months on field verification to arrive at the conclusion we had compiled. Mr. Gokhale, the Chief Secretary spent tough hours trying to convince the Chief Minister to let the unbiased village selection based on merit remain as it was, since it was done with various economic perspectives which included field coverage conveniences of the POUs for the success of the Project. The fact that I had selected four villages, which included my own village Naghutomi (Old), Naghutomi (New), Lokobomi and Awotsakilimi as an additional pilot project villages, ideal for cardamom plantation, added to the irritation in some sectors. Though not officially notified as yet, all the verified villages already knew that their village had been taken into serious consideration for selection and therefore, to undo this would have had a negative political fallout…not the best of option for politicians. Finally the village list was grudgingly approved with a somewhat bad taste left behind in its aftermath. Not a very good beginning…but we had it our way.
NEPED team consisted of bright enthusiastic youngsters drawn from the various development departments including general administration and Engineering stream. There was a healthy competitive spirit of camaraderie and it was a pleasure to be working together as a team. In order to eliminate the disparity of hierarchical seniority within the team, we began with a small ceremonial burial of our respective designation of our parental department…name and designation written on a piece of paper and deposited in a small tin box…all would henceforth work as equals with the exception of me as first amongst equals, though my name and designation was also deposited in that little tin box.
All Project Operation Unit (POU) were expected to carry out a 10-15 days field trip every month which would be followed by a field report being discussed threadbare, identifying the positive and the negative approach of our interaction with the rural population to make an optimum impact through their absorbed understanding. In the first phase, large areas of land had been brought under tree plantation in every village and it was necessary to introduce crops that could grow under these trees…not only ensuring maintenance of the plantation but have gainful production in the interim period before the trees mature for commercial harvesting. The business of identifying shade loving commercial crops took time to stabilise, but finally cardamom, ginger and turmeric topped the list of selection. Other crops like passion fruit, soybeans and maize were also a popular choice though not exactly shade loving variety. At a later stage we also introduced an unheard off fruit…the kiwi. This fruit is beginning to do well in Nagaland.
The writer is a retired IAS Officer, Forest Colony, Kohima
