Itanagar: The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) has raised apprehensions over the “deafening silence” maintained by the state government over the interstate boundary issue with Assam.
Referring to Saturday’s reported incident of Lakhimpur divisional forest officer (DFO) carrying out an “illegal land survey” inside the Kimin sub-division in Papum Pare district, the AAPSU said “the exercise should serve as an eye-opener for the Arunachal Pradesh government.”
“From news reports, it is clear that the Assam forest officials along with the Powergrid officers were illegally carrying out a survey inside the Kimin sub-division for a transmission line. If that was indeed the case, why is the Arunachal government allowing the Powergrid and other Central agencies to carry out surveys and other activities inside the state through the Government of Assam? Any Central projects inside Arunachal should be undertaken through the state government and not the Assam government,” AAPSU president Hawa Bangng and general secretary Tobom Dai said in a joint statement on Sunday.
The AAPSU further stated that the forest department of Assam through an order issued by Digboi DFO dated September 20, 2021 has been carrying out illegal surveys and other activities in the Changlang district for a proposed reserved forest under the division inside Arunachal Pradesh.
“While the said notification has been issued in the context of Assam, the entire activity is being carried out inside Arunachal Pradesh right under the nose of the state forest department and the Changlang district administration,” the union said.
The AAPSU desires peace and tranquility along the inter-state borders and cessation of all forms of illegalities from the Assam government. The Government of Arunachal Pradesh should strongly take up the matter with its Assam counterpart and the Union government, the statement added.
The AAPSU has further asked chief minister Pema Khandu to re-visit his assurance of settling the interstate boundary issue “out of court”.
The continued deafening silence maintained by the state government on the interstate boundary imbroglio is perplexing. The much hyped “out of court” settlement as assured by the chief minister needs to be revisited with such frequent and recurring actions from the neighboring state, the union said.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu had earlier this month said that Assam and Arunachal have agreed in principle to sort out their inter-state boundary issues out-of-court.
The Arunachal government has also formed a High Power Committee under the chairmanship of home minister Bamang Felix to look into the matter.
Arunachal shares approximately 730km of boundary with Assam.
