Jorhat, May 6: Assam minister for state (independent charge) for border areas development, prisons, mines and minerals Girindra Mallik today made his maiden visit to Rongkham area - one of the trouble spots along the Assam-Nagaland border - off Mariani in Jorhat district.

But the trip was preceded by Mariani MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi accusing the minister of keeping him in the dark on the issue.

Kurmi, the Congress MLA for the second consecutive term since 2006, has been vocal about the encroachment reportedly by people from Nagaland over the years in Assam territory and is known for his outbursts against the government for "neglecting" his constituency.

In the past few years, he had several spats with the district police and administration for "ignoring" the problems of his constituency where there have been incidents of violence along the Assam-Nagaland border.

Kurmi told mediapersons at the Circuit House that he was "utterly surprised" as he was not informed about Mallik's tour and also not invited to the border review meeting.

"I, being the local MLA who has been highlighting the rampant border encroachments from Nagaland side along with killings and attacks on our people time and again, was neither informed nor invited to the review meeting and the border visit by the minister's office or by the district administration," Kurmi said.

He claimed that Mallik's visit was the result of his repeated pleas to chief minister Tarun Gogoi in recent times to direct the border areas minister to take stock of the situation. Kurmi said he was invited to the review meeting after he, over phone, brought the matter to the chief minister's notice.

Mallik tried to downplay the issue by attributing Kurmi's vociferous protest inside the Circuit House compound to a "misunderstanding and communication gap" between him (Mallik) and Kurmi. The minister invited Kurmi to the meeting and the latter joined.

Later, Kurmi accompanied Mallik to the border and interacted with the villagers and oversaw the security arrangements. The minister told newspersons here that Dispur was for an early settlement of the decades-old border dispute and the government through its lawyer has been urging the Supreme Court, which is hearing the matter, to expedite the process.

He said he would brief Gogoi on the prevailing border scenario. Mallik said the government has a strong position against encroachments and clear instructions have been given to local administrations to take appropriate steps in this regard.