Boundary demarcation should be in a win-win situation: National People's Party

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ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Pradesh unit of National People's Party (NPP) on Wednesday said that any decision to resolve the decades-old inter-State boundary dispute with Assam should be a win-win situation so that the traditional peaceful coexistence between both the neighbours is maintained.

The party, while referring to the issue that cropped up among the villagers of six villages under Papum Pare district of the State after the regional committee of Arunachal on January 9 had recommended for transfer of six villages to Assam, said that the Namsai Declaration should be followed for resolving border issue in Papum Pare district.

"The recommendation of the Regional Committee should be re-visited and Banderdewa, Tanihappa, Tarajuli, Gorubandha, Pichola, DirghaDuffla, Belo and Loar villages should be retained with Arunachal Pradesh", NPP State unit general secretary Paknga Bage said in a press conference here.

Bage added that the aggrieved villages even staged a protest rally on Tuesday against the recommendation of the Regional Committee of the State.

Bage said that a team of NPP visited the disputed areas and interacted with the stakeholders, including panchayat leaders, village headmen and NGOs of the villages, who alleged that no public hearing was conducted by both the regional committees of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and no consent was taken from them.

He added that the grievances placed by the villagers are justified as the villages are dominated by Arunachalees from 50-60 years back when the area was under forest cover.

"Presently the land has been developed for the agri-horti sector with huge number of human settlements. The villages under question are within the Constitutional boundary of Arunachal and even it is under the Torun Chatterjee Commission's recommendation of 2007", Bage pointed out.

He said that the Namsai Declaration executed last year agreed that three out of the six disputed villages would remain with Arunachal in the Papum Pare district.

Bage said that though NPP is a partner of the BJP-led NDA Government, but the State unit has decided to stand with the stakeholders of the border areas in the Papum Pare district.

He added that the party also recommended to the State Government that all level of talk for resolving bounder dispute with Assam should be in the line of Torun Chatterjee Commission's recommendations.

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