Silchar, Feb. 5: The Centre has cleared a proposal to set up an additional joint monitoring group to review adherence to the ground rules of the six-month ceasefire between the government and the Dima Halam Daoga (DHD). The truce took effect on January 1.
North Cachar Hills deputy commissioner Syed Iftikar Hussain told The Telegraph over phone from Haflong that the monitoring panel, headed by joint secretary in the Union home ministry Aravinda Kumar, would be in addition to the district-level co-ordination committee comprising senior government officials and DHD leaders. The group will meet twice a month to take stock of the situation in the district.
As per the ground rules of the ceasefire, the DHD opened a liaison centre at Digric near Haflong on Sunday. The office is housed in an abandoned building of the soil conservation department. At least 12 DHD leaders have been permitted to stay there. Hussain said about 200 DHD activists would soon shift from their hideouts in the dense jungles of the district to four designated camps at Digendoo, Ditakcherra and Shenkhor near Maibong township in North Cachar Hills and Dhansiri in adjacent Karbi Anglong district.
Joel Garlosa, president of the DHD?s ?supreme council?, has assured the administration that his men would not violate the ceasefire. The DHD is expected to submit its proposals to Delhi in two weeks. Its main demand is a new state of ?Dimaraji?, including Dimapur in Nagaland.