Assam has boundary dispute with Arunachal Pradesh at 1,200 places, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the 126-member State Assembly on Friday.
He also said Mizoram’s insistence on economic activities for its people in the inter-State boundary forest despite an obligation to maintain status quo has stalled a tripartite agreement with the Centre.
“We have started informal talks with the Arunachal government on the border issue. We have 12 areas of differences with Meghalaya but the dispute with Arunachal is at 1,200 places,” Dr. Sarma said.
He said both States have overcome their immaturity and are working on a solution on the basis of the communities occupying the dispute stretches.
The Chief Minister said that unlike clear delineation of the boundary during the creation of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, ambiguity left at the time Arunachal, Mizoram and Nagaland were carved out from Assam led to the disputes.
Cases pertaining to Assam’s boundary disputes with Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh are pending in the Supreme Court.
“Resolving the dispute with Nagaland would be very difficult as it cannot be done at the government level. We will act as directed by the Supreme Court. Both States have an understanding on maintaining the status quo . We will not encroach upon each other’s territory,” Dr. Sarma said.
He said Assam and Meghalaya did not have any historical or Constitutional clash despite 12 points of difference.
“We will first try to resolve the dispute in six areas over one-two small villages. The people cast their votes in both States. If they have their houses in Meghalaya, they have their agricultural fields in Assam and they cannot say in which State they will remain,” he said.
The two States have already decided to constitute three regional committees each, headed by a Cabinet Minister. They will lay focus on historical facts, ethnicity, administrative convenience, the willingness of the people and their overall sense of sentiments and contiguity of the land which falls under the areas of differences while trying to solve the problem.
On the Mizoram frontier, the Chief Minister said the British administration had given the Inner-Line Reserve Forest along the inter-State border to the Lushai Hills (present-day Mizoram) in 1870. The forest was bifurcated in 1932.
“When Mizoram was made a Union Territory in 1972, it was decided that the 1932 boundary will be its boundary. During the [signing of the] Mizo peace accord, that very boundary was agreed to be made Mizoram’s boundary. Based on this boundary, Mizoram was created as a State in 1987,” he said.
Dr. Sarma also said Assam and Mizoram would have inked a tripartite deal with the Centre on the border issue had Mizoram not been insistent on its people practising jhum (shifting cultivation) in the Inner-Line Reserve Forest.
“They agree to maintain status quo every time the two States discuss the issue with the Centre. But they want their people to get the right to economic activities in the forest. We are opposed to this,” he said.
