To bring an amicable end to the long-standing border dispute between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, a meeting of the chairman and members of the regional committees that has been formed to expedite the process of identification and early resolution of disputed areas for Dibrugarh district (Assam) and Tirap district (Arunachal Pradesh) was held in Dibrugarh on Friday night.
Assam border protection and development minister Atul Bora, chairman of Arunachal Pradesh regional committee and minister of Public Health Engineering (PHE) Wangki Lowang, Khonsa East MLA Wanglam Sawin, Naharkatia MLA Taranga Gogoi, Dibrugarh DC Biswajit Pegu, Dibrugarh SP Shwetank Mishra, Tirap DC Taro Mize, Tirap SP Kardak Riba and other officials were present in the meeting.
Earlier the two regional committees had jointly visited the disputed areas of Tirap and Dibrugarh. Following the inspection, the reports to be submitted by the two committees to the respective state governments were finalised at Friday’s meeting.
“We are confident that with the strong political goodwill of our Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the sincere interest of Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, the border issue between the two states will be resolved amicably,” Atul Bora said at the end of the meeting.
Assam shares an 804-km inter-state border with Arunachal Pradesh and as many as eight districts in the frontier state and 12 districts in Assam are affected by the border row. On July 15, chief ministers of the two north eastern states had met at Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh and signed an agreement known as the “Namsai Declaration” to end border issues between the two states. During the meeting it was decided to “restrict” the number of disputed villages to 86 instead of 123. Out of the 37 villages where there is no dispute, 34 villages fall within the border of Arunachal Pradesh, the rest three lay in Assam.
