As this newspaper in a series of reports has pointed out in recent times, it is the utter callousness and inefficacy of the Tarun Gogoi government that is primarily responsible for the unabated encroachment of Asom’s land by the neighbouring State of Nagaland. It is as if the Naga encroachers, inspired by the NSCN thesis of Greater Nagalim, are free to set up their establishments in Asom’s territory because the Gogoi government and its incompetent police force would not take any responsibility of protecting the indigenous people of the State from encroachers, be they Nagas or illegal Bangladeshis. The message is of this sort: when it comes to giving protection to its own subjects, the Gogoi government would look the other way, unlike when it comes to shielding illegal Bangladeshis. And the encroachers know this very well. No wonder then that in the wake of a clash between a Naga group and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chattra Parishad (AJYCP) activists on Tuesday at Ougurijan in Sivasagar district, the Naga encroachers should wreak vengeance and assert themselves on Asom’s soil by erecting a signboard — ‘‘Welcome to Mon district’’ — in that area under the very nose of the Asom police. Protesting the stoic silence maintained by both the Centre and the Asom government despite the knowledge of the rampancy of Naga encroachment on Asom’s land, the AJYCP observed Black Day throughout the State on Wednesday and announced a protest rally in the Ougurijan area along the Asom-Nagaland border on September 12.
In the aftermath of the killing of two Asomiyas by Naga encroachers in 2007, the Gogoi government had assured the people living near the Asom-Nagaland border of setting up well-equipped border outposts and police stations along the border areas of Geleki and Bihubar in Sivasagar district. It is two years since then and yet the assurance has remained mere words. True, there are three border outposts and a police outpost in the Bihubar area, but these are just names that do not serve any purpose; the police outpost does not even have a running vehicle as we reported yesterday! And then there are allegations by local people that the police personnel engaged on duty have been collecting money from stone quarries along the Dikhow river without paying any attention to encroachment by Naga people. These are very serious allegations which the State government must probe if it means a government by the people and for the people, which presently it does not at all appear to be. It also seems to have been lost on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi that his government ceases to lay claim to being an elected government if it serves anything and anybody but the people who have elected it. And a government that cannot protect its own people from attacks of different kinds — be they from Naga encroachers or in the form of a gradual invasion of the State by the hostile illegal Bangladeshi crowd — has no business to make pretence of different hues from the Dispur fortress just to dupe the rural electorate. Such a government cannot have the right to continue, for it serves none but itself while its police force protects none but only the so-called Dispur VIPs. THE SENTINEL
In the aftermath of the killing of two Asomiyas by Naga encroachers in 2007, the Gogoi government had assured the people living near the Asom-Nagaland border of setting up well-equipped border outposts and police stations along the border areas of Geleki and Bihubar in Sivasagar district. It is two years since then and yet the assurance has remained mere words. True, there are three border outposts and a police outpost in the Bihubar area, but these are just names that do not serve any purpose; the police outpost does not even have a running vehicle as we reported yesterday! And then there are allegations by local people that the police personnel engaged on duty have been collecting money from stone quarries along the Dikhow river without paying any attention to encroachment by Naga people. These are very serious allegations which the State government must probe if it means a government by the people and for the people, which presently it does not at all appear to be. It also seems to have been lost on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi that his government ceases to lay claim to being an elected government if it serves anything and anybody but the people who have elected it. And a government that cannot protect its own people from attacks of different kinds — be they from Naga encroachers or in the form of a gradual invasion of the State by the hostile illegal Bangladeshi crowd — has no business to make pretence of different hues from the Dispur fortress just to dupe the rural electorate. Such a government cannot have the right to continue, for it serves none but itself while its police force protects none but only the so-called Dispur VIPs. THE SENTINEL
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