Assam and Meghalaya created history last week when the two sides on July 2 jointly installed the first pillar in the Hahim area between Kamrup and Ri-Bhoi districts, a historic step towards a permanent settlement of the interstate boundary dispute. While the two states share approximately 884.9 kilometres of interstate boundary, the failure of the Centre as well as the two state governments way back in 1972 to demarcate the boundary properly when Meghalaya was created has cost quite dearly for both sides in the past half-century. Assam, in fact, has been struggling to resolve interstate boundary issues with three other states of the region, these being Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, and several interventions by the Centre as well as the Supreme Court had led it to nowhere. It was only after the present BJP-led government of Assam took up the issue in the right earnest and Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma reached out to his counterparts in those states that things started moving in the right direction. Failure of successive governments to permanently demarcate the interstate boundaries satisfactorily had led to serious conflicts in the past five decades. On many occasions, police forces of Assam and the other states were even engaged in armed conflicts as if the two sides belonged to two different enemy nations. Violent clashes have resulted in the loss of life, livelihood, and property in all four states. For the record, Assam shares 512.1 km of boundary with Nagaland, 804.1 km with Arunachal Pradesh, 204.1 km with Manipur, 164.6 km with Mizoram, 46.3 km with Tripura, and 127 km with West Bengal. While Assam and Meghalaya last week jointly erected a boundary pillar at Hahim, the Assam Chief Minister has termed it as a “pillar of peace and clarity.” It is important to note that it was in 2022 that Assam and Meghalaya had signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to begin defining the interstate boundary. As the Assam Chief Minister pointed out, six of the 12 disputed areas between the two states have been resolved and earmarked for boundary works, and fruits of that agreement are now flowing in as the first pillar gets erected. Similar initiatives are also reported to be in the pipeline for a final and long-lasting settlement with the other states where such disputes exist. Resolving interstate boundary disputes amicably is for the good of all sides, and the ongoing effort will contribute in a significant manner towards accelerating socio-economic development in the region.