What is the history behind the border issue between the two states? How are they planning to deal with it?
What is the history behind the border issue between the two states? How are they planning to deal with it?
the story So Far: Less than a month after the central government approved an agreement to partially resolve disputed areas along the Assam-Meghalaya border, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma called for the district. -Level committees were decided to be formed. To settle their inter-state border disputes. It has turned the ball around for both states to resolve the issue based on a “fifty-fifty” or “take-and-take” model, with Assam and Meghalaya closing disputes in six of their 12 trouble zones. to be followed.
Why does Arunachal Pradesh have a border dispute with Assam?
Assam has had border disputes with all the north-eastern states that were carved out of it. While Nagaland became a state in 1963, Meghalaya first became an autonomous state in 1970 and a full-fledged state in 1972. Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram were carved out of Assam in 1972 as union territories and in 1987 as states. None of the new states accepted. He said the “constitutional limit” was set by the partisan administration of undivided Assam without consulting tribal stakeholders. He also claimed that the disputed areas were under the control of tribal chieftains before Assam, after India’s independence, inherited “imaginary borders” drawn during British rule. The issue with Arunachal Pradesh pertains to a 1951 report prepared by a sub-committee headed by Gopinath Bordoloi, the first chief minister of Assam.
What is the origin of the dispute?
The 804-km border between Arunachal Pradesh and Assam is disputed over 1,200 points. The disputes surfaced in the 1970s and intensified in the 1990s with repeated flare-ups along the border. However, the issue dates back to 1873, when the British government introduced the Inner-Line Regulation, which separated the plains from the marginal hills, which were later designated as the North-East Frontier Tracts in 1915. The area became the North-East Frontier Agency. NEFA) In 1954, three years after a notification based on a 1951 report, 3,648 square kilometers of Balipara and Sadiya foothills were being transferred to the Darrang and Lakhimpur districts of Assam. Arunachal Pradesh has been celebrating its statehood largely in keeping with China since 1987, but what is causing outrage is the inability of people living in the relocated patch to attend the celebrations. The leaders of Arunachal Pradesh claim that these lands were arbitrarily transferred without consulting the tribes holding customary rights. Their counterparts in Assam maintain that the 1951 demarcation is constitutional and legal.
Did the two states try to resolve the border dispute earlier?
Between 1971 and 1974, several attempts were made to demarcate the boundary between Assam and NEFA/Arunachal Pradesh. To end the impasse, a high-powered tripartite committee involving the Center and both the states was constituted in April 1979 to delineate the boundary on the basis of surveys. Maps of India. By 1984 the inter-state boundary of about 489 km north of the Brahmaputra river had been demarcated, but Arunachal Pradesh did not accept the recommendations and claimed most of the areas transferred in 1951. Assam objected and approached the Supreme Court in 1989. The “encroachment” of Arunachal Pradesh. The apex court in 2006 appointed a Local Boundary Commission headed by one of its retired judges.
In its September 2014 report, this commission recommended that Arunachal Pradesh take back some of the territories transferred in 1951, besides advising the two states to find a middle ground through discussion. This did not happen.
What are the chances of finding a solution this time?
The Assam-Meghalaya border agreement has raised hopes of a resolution to the Assam-Arunachal border dispute, especially as the Center urged the north-eastern states to end their territorial issues once and for all by August 15, 2022, When the country celebrates 75 years. of independence. Furthermore, there is a general perception that the sister-states of the region are in a better position to fast-track the proposal as they are governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre. Following the model adopted in the exercise of resolving the dispute with Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have agreed to form district-level committees, which will be tasked with conducting joint surveys in disputed areas, on the basis of the long pending issue. But to find a solid solution. Historical perspective, ethnicity, proximity, will of the people and administrative convenience of both the states.
Both the states have decided to form 12 such committees covering the border sharing districts. There are eight districts in Assam that touch the border of Arunachal Pradesh, which has 12 such districts.
Summary
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma have decided to form district-level committees to settle their inter-state border disputes.
The issue began with a 1951 report that transferred 3,648 square kilometers of the “plain” area of the Balipara and Sadiya foothills to the Darrang and Lakhimpur districts of Assam. Arunachal Pradesh claims that the transfer was made without consulting its tribes, who had customary rights over these lands.
Both the states have decided to form 12 committees comprising the border sharing districts to come up with a solution.