Assam-Arunachal boundary pact Organizations raise objection
New Delhi: The Assam and Arunachal Pradesh governments on Thursday signed an agreement to resolve their decades-old border dispute in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah here.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart Pema Khandu signed the agreement.
Assam and Arunachal Pradesh share a border of 804.1 km.
The two states are in talks to resolve the border dispute with Sarma and Khandu signing the Namsai Declaration on July 15 last year in which they promised to find a solution soon.
The two states decided to settle the dispute in 123 villages, officials said.
Shah called the border agreement a “historic” event and said it ended decades of conflict.
Sarma said the deal was a “big and successful” moment.
Khandu called the agreement “historic”.
Regional committees dealing with specific areas, comprising ministers, local MLAs and officials from both sides, were formed last year to take the dialogue forward.
Arunachal Pradesh, which was made a Union Territory in 1972, maintains that many forest areas in the plains traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities and were earlier “unilaterally” transferred to Assam.
After Arunachal Pradesh was granted statehood in 1987, a tripartite committee was appointed, which recommended that some areas be transferred from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh.
Assam contested this and the matter was before the Supreme Court for a long time.
