MoU on Assam-Arunachal border issue implemented in right earnest: Pema Khandu

 OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh on the border dispute is being implemented in earnest. In a written reply to a question by Congress member Wanglin Lowandong, Khandu said that in areas where issues are fully clear, a pilot survey would be carried out shortly. Kamengbari and Bhalukpong in West Kameng district have been chosen for the pilot survey after a detailed discussion with the Survey of India and his Assam counterpart, the chief minister said. He added that areas and districts where certain matters are still to be resolved are being looked into by the respective regional committees.

Khandu added that out of the 123 villages recommended by the local commission, as of this date, 115 villages would remain in Arunachal Pradesh and the remaining eight in Assam. “Three villages under Lower Siang and one village each in Lower Dibang Valley and Pakke Kessang districts have been adjusted to Arunachal Pradesh in lieu of an equal amount of land to be ceded to Assam,” Khandu informed. The chief minister said the government had not surrendered the forest areas claimed by Assam, particularly in the eastern part of the state. Khandu said appropriate steps have been taken to adjust areas and villages in accordance with the recommendations of the local commission and as mutually agreed upon by regional committees in their respective districts.

Regarding the stand of the government on the 1951 recommendations by the one-man Bordoloi Commission, wherein over 3,000 square kilometres of land of erstwhile NEFA was transferred to Assam, the chief minister said that since inception, the stand of the state government has been against the unilateral notification of 1951. On April 20 this year, the Assam and Arunachal Pradesh governments signed an agreement in New Delhi in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to resolve their decades-old border disputes. Assam and Arunachal Pradesh share an 804.1-kilometre-long border.

Arunachal Pradesh, which was made a Union territory in 1972, has been maintaining that several forested tracts in the plains traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities, and these were ‘unilaterally’ transferred to Assam earlier. After Arunachal Pradesh achieved statehood in 1987, a tripartite committee was appointed, which recommended that certain territories be transferred from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh. Assam contested this, and the matter was in the Supreme Court for a long time.

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