Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, and Pema Khandu, the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, reached a deal on Friday to settle their long-running border dispute. Instead of 123, the two leaders decided to limit the number of disputed villages to 86.
“Instead of 123, we have chosen to limit the number of “disputed villages” to 86. By September 15, 2022, we’ll endeavor to settle the remaining issues based on our current boundaries “Following the conference in Namsai, Arunachal Pradesh, Mr. Sarma tweeted. Additionally, Mr. Khandu tweeted about the accord.
The two leaders met on January 24 and again on April 20. It was determined that only border disputes involving Assam and Arunachal Pradesh would be brought before the Local Commission in 2007.
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To delineate the interstate boundary between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, both States established 12 Regional Committees, one for each of the 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh and the counterpart districts of Assam. These committees were each responsible for the 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh, and they jointly verified 123 villages.
At the Friday meeting, Mr. Sarma and Mr. Khandu reached a principled agreement over the 37 disputed villages.
The 28 villages that are part of Arunachal Pradesh’s constitutional border will remain there, but the state has renounced its claim to three Assamese villages.
The agreement stipulated that six more villages that could not find on the Assam side would also stay with the boundary state if they were identified in Arunachal Pradesh.
According to a tweet from Mr. Khandu, “both states will form 12 Regional Committees, each representing the equivalent districts in Assam and Arunachal for a joint verification of 123 villages and recommendations to respective State Governments.”
Before September 15, these regional committees would turn in their first report on the topics or any additional topics where agreement has been reached.
The draft MoU will be sent to the union government for approval “as and when the regional committees will finish their discussions and agreement is reached between the two governments,” according to the Namsai Declaration.
Members of the Assam Cabinet Atul Bora, Ashok Singhal, Pijush Hazarika, Bimal Bora, Sanjay Kisan, MP Pradan Baruah, MLA Bolin Chetia, and Taranga Gogoi were also present on the Assam side in addition to the Chief Minister.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, and many ministers were in charge of representing Arunachal Pradesh.
Khandu stated in a Twitter post that the boundary dispute between the two states has existed for seven decades. Still, tragically no previous administrations had the political will to overcome it. He also hailed the Narendra Modi administration for its assistance in resolving the matter.
