Guwahati: The northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have decided to form 12 district-level committees to resolve the age-old border disputes between the two neighboring states in a time bound manner.
The decision was taken at the second chief minister-level meeting on the issue held here on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by Arunachal chief minister Pema Khandu, his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma and the chief secretaries and senior officials of both the states.
Both Khandu and Sarma later took to twitter to share the information.
“Had a very fruitful 2nd CM level meeting with Hon CM Assam Sh @himantabiswa ji & his team to resolve the long pending inter State boundary issue. We decided to form mutual District Level Committees & agreed on the Terms of References,” Khandu said.
The chief minister also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah for their support and guidance and Sarma for his “positive leadership” in solving the issue.
“The positive enthusiasm for resolution on both sides is very encouraging. Grateful to Honble PM Shri @narendramodi ji and Honble Union Home Minister Shri @AmitShah ji for their guidance and Hon CM Assam Sh @himantabiswa ji for his proactive and positive leadership from Assam side,” Khandu said.
Sarma said the district committees will 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.
Assam border affairs minister Atul Bora who was also a part of the meeting said the “settlement of inter-state border issues will lead to all-round development of the border areas and welfare of the people living in those areas.”
Bora also thanked chief minister Khandu for showing his keenness in solving the decades-old issue.
Assam and Arunachal Pradesh share an 804-km-long border and there are 1,200 points of disputes along it.
Sarma had earlier this year said that Assam and Arunachal have decided to conduct a ground level survey on the status of interstate boundary as a step towards resolving the border row.
The Arunachal government had last year constituted a High Power Ministerial Committee comprising representatives from several political parties, community based organizations and student organizations to study and resolve the issue.
