Border issue: Assam, Arunachal govts hold talks

The Assam and Arunachal Pradesh governments are putting relentless efforts to resolve the inter-state boundary issue.

As part of fast-tracking the process, Regional Committees of both the sides met for the second time and inspected the disputed areas along Pakke-Kessang district in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam’sBiswanath district.

Briefing newspersons, Assam minister Pijush Hazarika informed that 4 villages names
Chief Ministers of both the respective states want issues to be resolved on an urgency basis.

Hazarika emphasized that conflicts have to end so that peace prevails. Besides, Pijush Hazarika also maintained that Arunachal Pradesh considers Assam to be it’s Big Brother as far as the border issue is concerned.

However, both the regional committees have come to the conclusion that the 4 disputed villages alongside both the states are under the forest reserve. In this case, the regional committees will be sending reports to the Centre seeking a solution into the matter, Hazarika added.

Besides, the Assam minister said that out of the 4 villages, 3 want to remain with Arunachal Pradesh and 1 with Assam. The final decision will be taken by the Centre as well as the respective Chief Ministers, Pijush Hazarika added.

Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh minister who headed the regional committee said that both the sides interacted with the people in the 4 disputed villages of Passo, Dipik, Dighalmukh and Lower Dighalmukh.

This was followed by a joint survey of the disputed sides by both the regional committees besides taking feed back from the locals.