DIMAPUR, Nov 21 � The Rengma Hoho, Rengma GBs Association and Rengma Naga Public Organisation Karbi Anglong have demanded an apology from Assam Health Minister and Spokesman Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma for his reported statement �there are no other Naga areas in Assam and only some Zeme Nagas in the North Cachar Hills district. The few Nagas who stay in other parts of the State are encroachers and not inhabitants.�
Terming his statement as totally baseless which cannot be tolerated, several Rengma organisations, in a joint statement today demanded that Dr Sarma tender an apology to the Rengma Naga tribe for his ignorance and limited knowledge about the tribe and for branding them as encroachers in Assam.
To substantiate their point, they stated that shifting of Naga Hills district headquarters from Samaguting to Kohima in 1878, introduction of Assam Bengal Railway in 1899, introduction of Inner Line in 1873 and the competition of tea cultivation in Assam within the Naga Hills district were the four basic factors that led to the transfer of certain portions of Rengma Hills from Naga Hills to the adjoining districts of Assam in 1878.
They also produced some government official correspondence notes extracted from the Commissioner of Assam in communication with the Chief Commissioner of Assam Valley, dated Shillong, the 3rd August, 1898, with regard to the transfer of the Rengma Hills from Naga Hills to Assam.
Maintaining that the Nagas have every right to live under one administrative unit because the chunks of Naga inhabited areas alongwith the populations were illegally transferred into adjoining States of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh during the British rule for their administrative convenience, the statement pointed out that the 16-Point Agreement arrived at between the Government of India and the Naga People�s Convention in 1960 also stated that the contiguous Naga inhabited areas and forest areas shall be consolidated, if they so desire.
When the 16-Point Agreement is very clear, the governments of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, raising their angry reactions are unjustified and uncalled for and they should not jeopardise or sabotage the political, social, economic and cultural solution between the Government of India and NSCN-IM, it said.
