Centre To Decide Fate Of Reserve Forests; Assam-Arunachal Border Dispute

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The state government will leave the fate of reserve forests along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh boundary to be decided by the Centre, even as the border dispute in general will be resolved bilaterally under the Namsai Declaration.

There are several reserve forests along the 804-km inter-state boundary between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, which is the longest boundary that the state shares with any neighbour.

Talking to The Sentinel, Assam's Border Development and Protection Minister Atul Bora said on Friday that the 12 Regional Committees of each state have already carried out site visits at least once each. Originally, the dispute between the two states was regarding 123 villages. However, the dispute relating to 37 villages were resolved between Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Arunachal counterpart Pema Khandu at the time of the Namsai Declaration on July 15 last, Bora said. The remaining 86 villages have been surveyed at least one each by the respective Regional Committees of the two states. The Minister added that areas with more disputes will be revisited by the Regional Committees of both states.

Bora added that it was found that there are some issues relating to several reserve forests along the inter-state boundary, as Arunachal Pradesh has already granted land settlement to residents of that state even while Assam has been treating them as reserve forests. Bora cited the example of some reserve forests near Sadiya where the Arunachal Pradesh Government has given land settlement to residents of that state.

Bora said that it will be difficult for either state to decide on these reserve forests and hence the decision will be left to the Centre.

He added that the state hopeful that in view of the strong initiative taken by Chief Minister Sarma and the positive response from Pema Khandu, all barriers will be overcome and the border dispute, which has been pending in the Supreme for over three decades (Original Suit No 1/1989), will be amicably resolved in the time to come.

It may be mentioned that both Sarma and Khandu had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi recently, and the latter had advised the two Chief Ministers to ensure resolution of the border dispute through discussions.

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