Imphal, January 12: Nagaland Minister for Agriculture and Horticulture, Dr TM Lotha expressed serious concern on the fast growing border tension between Assam and Nagaland and further sought �immediate intervention� of the Union Home Ministry before the �situation goes out of hand".

The Minister said after the unfortunate killing of one Naga youth and injuring another seriously at broad daylight at Merapani by the personnel of the CRPF manning the Disputed Area Belt (DAB) on 23rd September last without rhyme or reason, they rushed to Delhi and explained the Union Home Ministry about the situation in the border areas.

Surprisingly, the incident took place soon after the Supreme Court had announced constitution of �Boundary Commission� to resolve the inter-state boundary disputes between Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, he disclosed.

It may be mentioned that after the unfortunate incident, high level Ministerial Team including Border Minister Kheto and Agriculture and Horticulture Minister Dr TM Lotha and other State civil and police officials went to Merapani to take stock of the situation and met the publics in Marapani and Bhandari.

In which, the Merapani and Bhandari publics had strongly demanded for immediate withdrawal of 61 CRPF �D� Sector Company from Merapani.

Besides they had demanded for a befitting punishment to the CRPF personnel responsible for killing of the Naga youth and injuring seriously another without any rhyme or reason.

Regrettably no action had been taken so far till today, Dr Lotha said.

He also said he had personally requested the Union Home Minister in Delhi on October 19 last year in presence of Chief Minister N Rio who also reiterated on his demand, for his personal intervention to the border crisis.

�But they are not paying serious attention to our request,� rued the Minister.

Dr Lotha also categorically pointed out that the claims and counter-claims on the border issues between the two States would not bring any solution unless the real core issues had been addressed.

He believed that the Assam-Nagaland Border Interim Agreement of 1972 should be implemented in letter and spirit if they really wanted to bring a final settlement to the border imbroglio.

Sadly, the Assam Government didn�t honor this Agreement leading to logjam and complexity in finding solution, the Minister said.

He said as per the Agreement, the Assam Government was entrusted to look after the �reserve forests� in the border areas; instead they (Assam) had set up about 130 villages in the areas.

He also disclosed as per the Agreement, both the Assam and Nagaland should withdraw all the Police Outposts from the DAB areas.

�Interestingly again, the Assam Government is yet to withdraw their Police Outposts, whereas the Nagaland Government had already honored the Agreement by withdrawing their forces,� Dr Lotha said.

The Minister also mentioned that as per the Agreement, Merapani Seed Farm had been for Nagaland.

�But the Assam Police are not allowing us fencing of the Farm,� he stated.

Besides violating the Agreement, the Assam Government had been encouraging illegal immigrants to settle permanently in the DAB areas by even providing roof sheets to construct their houses, not realizing that these people would one day eat them up and cripple everything in their socio-economic and political life.

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