Assam-Arunachal Border Pact ‘Meaningless’ TMC explains

Guwahati:  The Assam unit of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party termed the signing of the agreement to resolve the inter-state border dispute between Assam and Arunachal as meaningless.
Addressing a press conference here in Guwahati on Friday, Assam TMC media department chairman Dilip Kumar Sarma alleged that it was a political ploy by the ruling BJP party for temporary gains ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Chief Minister of Assam is involved in spreading false propaganda before the Lok Sabha elections. No rules and regulations were followed while signing the MoU with the neighboring state on the border issue. Dilip Kumar Sarma alleged that the move was temporary, only to get the votes of people living on the Assam-Arunachal border.
Sarma also said that in the late Assam Assembly, Border Area Development Minister Atul Bora had presented a figure which showed that the four neighboring states of Arunachal, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland have acquired a total of 82,000 hectares of land. What has happened? Of this, Arunachal Pradesh occupied 16,144.01 hectares of land.
How many hectares of land has Assam managed to get back from neighboring Arunachal amid the so-called historic agreement signed between the two states on Thursday? Asked by Sarma, he added, “Arunachal has been handed over to 60 of the 71 villages in the disputed area, while the remaining 11 will be in Assam.”
He also questioned the Assam Chief Minister about not revealing the total number of hectares of land to be settled between the two states. Sarma alleged that the minister disclosed only the number of villages.

On the other hand, Dilip Kumar Sharma also emphasized some technical aspects in the press conference and said that this agreement does not resolve any dispute.
“There is really no solution if the leaders of the two states sit in Delhi and sign a memorandum of understanding to settle the inter-state border dispute. For that, firstly, the map of states in the Constitution of India, along with The ‘Survey of India’ map should be reformed, secondly, the Center will have to pass a resolution in the Parliament.This is possible only when the respective state assembly passes a resolution and sends it to the central government. Before that, an all-party delegation should be sent to the disputed areas to review the actual situation. Assam government also did nothing about it. So how can a long-standing dispute be settled with an overhead agreement?” added Sarma.
Sarma said that Assam should have gone to the Supreme Court if the neighboring state of Arunachal was not ready to give up the lands occupied by us.

“We will all accept the orders of the Supreme Court,” Sarma said.
Sarma demanded that the border dispute should be resolved only after reclaiming the occupied land by the neighboring states.

“Despite having a separate department for the development of border areas, the Assam government has done nothing to address the problems of border dwellers,” Sarma further alleged.