Nagaland CM-led panel to meet Shah over free border movement

An all-party delegation from Nagaland, including Independent MLAs will soon meet Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital to request him not to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with neighbouring Myanmar.

Sources aware of the development told this newspaper that the decision to lead a delegation to Delhi was taken during the Assembly session of Nagaland on March 7.

The Central Government in January 2024 announced that the FMR, which allows people residing close to the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 kilometres into each other’s territory without visa, would end soon.

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said in the Assembly that the restriction would impact the age-old historical, social, cultural, tribal and economic ties of Nagas living on both sides of the India-Myanmar border.

Rio proposed that he would lead an all-party delegation to meet the Home Minister at the earliest opportunity to raise the issue before him and other members of the House accepted the suggestion.

The Chief Minister further said in the Assembly that scrapping of FMR would impede the close ties between all communities which have relatives on both sides of the border and also several families cross into Myanmar and vice-versa for farming purpose on a daily basis, which would also be hampered.

Therefore there is a need for the Centre to review the decision of scrapping the FMR, Rio told legislators in the Assembly. The delegation would also apprise the Centre about the concerns of the House expressed through resolutions passed on March 1, 2024, and the Cabinet decisions of February 8, 2024, and January 6, 2025.

The 1,643-km-long India-Myanmar border, which passes through Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, currently has FMR. It was implemented in 2018 as part of India’s Act East policy.

The Centre's decision to scrap FMR is mainly guided by inputs that due to heavy influx of people from Myanmar into Manipur resulted in eruption of ethnic violence in the state.

Rio also informed the Assembly that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on December 31 last year  issued instructions allowing the cross-border movement of people who live within 10 km on each side of the India-Myanmar boundary.

According to the instruction, the movement of people has been limited to 43 designated crossing points and will be granted to only those who hold Border Passes issued by the Assam Rifles. Of these 43 designated points, nine are located in Nagaland. The MHA has also requested the Nagaland authorities to check Myanmar nationals for their Border Passes and take appropriate action on overstay or any other unauthorised activity by them, Rio said.