Staff Reporter

NAMSAI, July 15: The State Governments of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam on Friday inked the ‘Namsai Declaration’ for resolving the vexed inter-state boundary dispute between the two North Eastern states which has been pending with the Supreme Court of India.
The ‘Namsai Declaration’ was signed by the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, Pema Khandu and Himanta Biswa Sarma respectively during their third Chief Minister-level meeting on the decades-old contentious boundary issue - held for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh at Namsai today.
A beaming Khandu said the ‘declaration’, which has laid a solid foundation to end the interstate boundary issue, is the result of the commitment and resolve of BJP governments both in the states as well as in the centre.
“We are immensely grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for their continued guidance to ensure lasting peace in the North East region,” he said.
Khandu also profusely thanked his Assam counterpart for his proactive involvement, commitment and resolve to bring bonhomie between all neighbouring states by bringing permanent and lasting solution to interstate boundary disputes.
“I don’t believe in blame-games but had there been a political will – as we have shown today – in the past, the issues between neighboring states, including interstate boundary disputes, could have been resolved. If there is a ‘political’ will, there’s always a ‘political’ way out,” he said.
The meeting of the two chief ministers at Namsai is the third on resolving the interstate boundary dispute between the two neigbours. The first meet was held in January last and the second followed in April.
During the first meeting on January 24, 2022, it was decided that all border issue between Assam and Arunachal will be confined to those raised before the Local Commission in 2007, secondly, the boundary line delineated and signed on the 29 Toposheets by the High Powered Tripartite Committee as notified during 1980 would be taken as basis for realignment of boundary by both states and thirdly, both states would constitute 12 Regional Committees each covering the 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh and counterpart districts of Assam for joint verification of 123 villages to make recommendations to respective State Governments.
In line with the January agreement, subsequently both Assam and Arunachal Pradesh notified 12 Regional Committees.
In today’s meeting both the CMs agreed in principle to restrict the number of disputed villages to 86 instead of 123. The Regional Committees will submit their first tranche of report before September 15, 2022.
After the Regional Committees conclude their deliberations and agreement is arrived at between the two governments, the draft MoU will be referred to Government of India for its approval.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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