Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday announced that his government would create a Border Protection Force and a Border Development Council for people living in the inter-State boundary areas, even as angry protests greeted him during his visit to relief camps in Uriamghat along the Assam-Nagaland border to meet people displaced by violence on August 12-13.
Employing local youth
Mr. Gogoi said youth living in these areas would be recruited for the proposed border protection force. Police and paramilitary personnel fired in the air and resorted to baton-charge to disperse the protesters, some of whom tried to block the Chief Minister’s cavalcade and showed him black flags.
Mr. Gogoi said people’s anger was understandable. However, he accused some forces of trying to extract political mileage in the name of protests. Since the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had been deployed as the neutral force along the disputed belt, there was little scope for the State to act directly, he told journalists.
Mr. Gogoi visited three camps in Uriamghat and assured the inmates that all steps would be taken for their rehabilitation and security.
So far, the State Government had opened 12 relief camps in which 7,582 displaced people were taking shelter, stated an official release. Over 10,000 people had taken shelter in the relief camps after a raid by armed groups from Nagaland on eight villages in Uriamghat area in upper Assam’s Golaghat district (bordering Ralan area in Nagaland’s Wokha district) left nine dead and seven injured. Initial figures released by Assam government said 11 died in the attack.
Blockade continues
Meanwhile, nine security personnel from Nagaland, who had proceeded to Rowriah airport in upper Assam’s Jorhat district, to escort Nagaland Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Information and Public Relations Paiwang Konyak, have been stranded in Golghat district in Assam since Friday due to a blockade of National Highway 39 by several organisations.
A senior official in the Assam Home Department told The Hindu that efforts were being made to persuade the protestors to lift the blockade. Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang had sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Gogoi.
