Assam, Arunachal to form district committees to settle border disputes

Guwahati, April 20

The Chief Ministers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh on Wednesday announced to form district-level committees to resolve the long pending inter-state border disputes in a time-bound manner.

The decision was taken after Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma held a meeting in Guwahati with his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart Pema Khandu.

Sarma said that the district level committees would undertake joint surveys in the disputed areas to find tangible solutions to the long-pending issue based on historical perspective, ethnicity, contiguity, people's will and administrative convenience of both the states.

"We have also finalised the terms of reference of the district level committees," the Assam Chief Minister tweeted.

Assam Border Area Development Minister Atul Bora, Assam Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and other senior officials from both the states were also present.

Assam and Arunachal Pradesh share an 804.1-km-long inter-state border and there are 1,200 spots of dispute along the two northeastern states.

Media reports said that Arunachal Pradesh has encroached Assam's 8,395.25 hectares land in six districts - Sonitpur, Biswanath, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh and Charaideo.

Arunachal Pradesh was a centrally-administered region initially after Independence and became a Union Territory later, before attaining full statehood in 1987.