Guwahati, June 25: The Congress today requested Assam governor Banwarilal Purohit and chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal to ask the Centre to clear the misgivings regarding the framework agreement signed between New Delhi and the NSCN (I-M).

The appeal came a day after Congress MLA from Mariani Rupjyoti Kurmi started an indefinite hunger strike demanding that the Centre publish the details of the framework agreement and find a solution to the Assam-Nagaland border disputes. Kurmi launched his fast at Thana Tiniali in Jorhat district’s Mariani at 10am yesterday.

Assam shares a 434km border with Nagaland. Sivasagar, Jorhat and Golaghat districts in Upper Assam and Karbi Anglong district in central Assam are directly affected by border disputes between the two states.

The Centre and the NSCN (I-M) are negotiating a solution to the Naga problem since 1997. The two parties signed a framework agreement on August 3, 2015.

The unwillingness of the Centre to disclose the details of the agreement has raised suspicions among the people of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh because the NSCN (I-M) has been demanding integration of all contiguous Naga-inhabited areas, including those falling in these three states.

NSCN (I-M) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah recently triggered a storm of protest in Assam and Manipur when he claimed that the Centre had accepted the demand for a greater Nagaland.

In a letter to the governor, Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia wrote: “In the name of the Assamese people, I request you to take up the issue with the government of India without delay, with a view to ensure that the misgivings regarding the Centre-Naga agreement are allayed and Sri Kurmi can break his potentially-dangerous fast as early as possible.”

Saikia told The Telegraph that the letter he sent to Sonowal contained the same demands.

“Kurmi has rightly pointed out that the honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, had promised transparency in governance before coming to power at the Centre. Where is that transparency when it comes to matters involving the very territorial integrity of Assam?” Saikia asked.

Saikia said Kurmi was seeking to highlight the repeated attempts by a section of residents of Nagaland to encroach on various inter-state border areas, including Geleki, Merapani, Naginijan and Uriamghat.

“Moreover, since there is growing conviction among the affected residents of Assam that the encroachers have been emboldened by a secret pact to hand over specific areas of the state to Nagaland, Kurmi wants the details of the agreement between the Centre and the Naga leadership to be made available in the public domain,” the letter said.

Saikia today rushed to Mariani to meet Kurmi. A portion of the disputed Assam-Nagaland border touches Kurmi’s constituency.

The border dispute between the two states is sub-judice. The Assam government filed a title suit in the Supreme Court in 1988 to determine and delineate the constitutional boundary of the two states. In September 2006, the court set up a three-member commission, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, to delineate the boundary. The commission has submitted its report to the court but a final decision has not yet been made.

“The signing of the agreement will complete two years in a week. The Centre has been keeping the agreement under cover. It should be made public without delay,” Kurmi told The Telegraph this evening.

He said his blood pressure has fallen and doctors and representatives of the district administration were in touch with him throughout the day. He said his strike will continue till the Centre makes the agreement public.

Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi met Kurmi today and offered his support.

Kurmi had submitted a memorandum on the issue to President Pranab Mukherjee through the Jorhat administration yesterday. An official said the chief secretary received Kurmi’s letter through mail at 8.10pm today. “He will be forwarding it to the honourable President. He has also asked a senior official to convey this to the MLA and requested him to withdraw his fast,” an official at the chief secretary’s office said.

RAJIV KONWAR The Telegraph