Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart Pema Khandu signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) over the long-standing Assam Arunachal Pradesh Border Dispute
Key Points On Assam Arunachal Pradesh Border Dispute
- The two states share a roughly 804-kilometre long border
- The disputed areas the MoU deals with are 123 border villages, which span 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh and 8 districts of Assam.
- This will be final agreement neither of states will make any new claim in future relating to any area or village
- A detailed survey will be conducted by the Survey of India in the presence of representatives from both state governments to determine the boundaries after the agreement.
The Process Of Assam Arunachal Pradesh Border Dispute
- Assam CM Sarma and Arunachal CM Khandu commenced CM-level talks over this border issue on January 24, 2022.
- In their second meeting on April 20, 2022, they made some key decisions.
- The first was that the border issues between both the states would be confined to a list of 123 villages which Arunachal Pradesh had claimed before the Local Commission in 2007.
- The second was that a boundary line delineated by the high powered tripartite committee in 1980 would be taken as the notified boundary and all realignment would be done in relation to it.
- The third decision laid down how this resolution would take place.
- The committees were to make recommendations keeping in view “historical perspective, administrative convenience, contiguity and people’s will”.
The Agreement On Assam Arunachal Pradesh Border Dispute
- The dispute over 37 of these 123 villages had been resolved on July 15, 2022, itself with the signing of the Namsai Declaration between the both CMs
- This effectively reduced the number of disputes to be resolved to 86.
- Through the MoU, the dispute over another 34 villages has been “amicably resolved”.
- Of the 71 villages over which an understanding has been reached, the following has been decided:
- One village in Arunachal Pradesh as per the notified boundary will be included in Assam
- 10 villages in Assam as per the notified boundary will remain with Assam
- 60 villages in Assam as per the notified boundary will be included in Arunachal Pradesh
- The village boundaries of 49 of the remaining villages are unresolved, and the MoU states that in these the Regional Committees will finalize the boundaries within a period of six months “through continuous dialogue”.
- Another three villages are located partially within the Indian Air Force’s bombing area in Dullong.
- The MoU states that the matter regarding these three villages will be taken up by Arunachal Pradesh with the Government of India and the Indian Air Force.
- According to the MoU, both the state governments agree that no new claim area or village will be added in the future beyond these 123 villages.
History Of Assam Arunachal Pradesh Border Dispute
- Before North East Frontier Agency or NEFA (former name of what is now Arunachal Pradesh) was carved out of Assam in 1954, a sub-committee had made a set of recommendations in relation to the administration of NEFA and submitted a report in 1951.
- Around 3,648 kilometres of the “plain” area of Balipara and Sadiya foothills were transferred from NEFA to Assam’s then Darrang and Lakhimpur districts.
- When Arunachal was made a Union Territory in 1972, it contended that several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities were unilaterally transferred to Assam.
Resolution On Assam Arunachal Pradesh Border Dispute
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