DIPHU, July 4 � The Rengma Naga Students� Union (RNSU) of Karbi Anglong, has appealed to the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council to ensure basic needs for the Naga people, adversely affected by communal conflict in recent times.
The students� body raised several issues on development and security aspects of the Rengma minorities who had been inhabiting Karbi Anglong since several centuries now.
Phenpiga Rengma, president of RNSU in a press release mentioned that the Rengma Nagas started returning to their native villages since March 2014 from the relief camps which were set up near Borpathar Police Station, where they were lodged since December, 2013, following attacks on them.
The people were then promised regular ration, security and a normal life by the Government, based on which they returned home. However, the promises made against the demands of the Karbi and Naga civil bodies on January 14, 2014, have not been adhered to, the students� body stated.
Nevertheless, the student�s body thanked the Assam Government for compensating the families of the six killed during the attacks by paying Rs 3, 00,000 per family. The RNSU also admitted that the Government had provided Rs 22,800 and three bundles of CGI sheets to the families whose houses were torched, barring two families of Borlangso village.
Further, the Naga students� organisation mentioned that the Government had contemplated construction of PWD roads from Bogamati to Richangari and from Chokihola Block till Borlangso. As the roads have not been properly constructed by the contractors, hence basic amenities cannot reach the affected areas, especially food and civil supplies, medical aid, construction material etc.
�No primary healthcare unit has been set up for seriously affected women and children. A doctor who accompanied the students during their visit stated that many people had contacted malaria, diarrhoea, jaundice, viral fever and a number of water-borne diseases. Pregnant mothers were suffering and children going hungry, thus falling prey to various illnesses. This is a big threat to the Rengma population living in Assam,� Phenpiga Rengma, president of RNSU mentioned in the release.
�In search of food and shelter, a large population is going astray while trying to survive. People have left their cattle, poultry, farming tools etc. behind and now there is nothing left with them in this farming season to plough their fields�, he added.
