Guwahati: “The Northeastern states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have made ‘substantial progress’ to find an amicable solution to the long-standing boundary issues between the two friendly states,” stated the chief ministers of both Assam and Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday evening following a meeting between the two counterparts in the city.
Both the chief ministers hinted that almost 92 per cent of the border conflicts between the two states were already resolved amicably and a final report would be sent to the union home ministry in April this year for the Centre’s consideration.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “The discussion with the Arunachal Pradesh chief minister was highly successful and we believe that the final report will be sent to the home minister within the next few weeks. Then the home ministry will take the final call.”
Sarma stated that the Regional Committees formed to access and take feedback from stakeholders belonging to the disputed areas of the two states will submit the final report after visiting the 10 remaining disputed villages.
“The Regional Committees of both the states have tirelessly worked by appreciating the ground realities and recommending the way forward. Discussed all the issues threadbare which required the guidance at this forum and suggested way forward,” said Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu after the meeting.
The Genesis
Arunachal Pradesh was once a part of Assam and was separated in 1972. But the vexed border dispute between the two states dates back to the colonial era.
In fact, the genesis of the border dispute between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh dates back to 1873, when the then-British government introduced the inner-line regulation, vaguely separating the plains from the frontier hills (now Arunachal Pradesh) that were later designated as the North-East Frontier Tracts in 1915.
After Independence, the then Assam government assumed administrative jurisdiction over the North East Frontier Tracts, which later became the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) in 1954. However, a sub-committee headed by the first Assam chief minister, Gopinath Bordoloi, made some recommendations in relation to the administration of NEFA (under Assam then) and submitted a report in 1951, much before Arunachal Pradesh was carved out of Assam as a Union Territory (UT) of Arunachal Pradesh in 1972. Arunachal Pradesh gained statehood in 1987.
Based on the Bordoloi committee report, around 3,648 sq km of the plain area of Balipara and Sadiya foothills was transferred from Arunachal Pradesh (then NEFA) to Assam’s then Darrang and Lakhimpur districts.
While Arunachal Pradesh has been alleging that the transfer was done in an arbitrary and defective manner without the consultation of its people then, Assam, on the other hand, has been holding that the demarcation as per the 1951 notification is constitutional and legal.
Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have border disputes at around 1,200 points along their 804 km boundary.
Previous attempts at demarcation and solution
After Arunachal Pradesh was curved out of Assam as a UT in 1972, the border issues came to the fore and constitutional solutions were sought.
Between 1971 and 1974, there were multiple efforts to demarcate the boundary that did not work out due to constant conflicts amongst the people living in the disputed areas.
In April 1979, a high-powered tripartite committee was constituted to outline the boundary on the basis of Survey of India maps, as well as discussions with both sides.
Though by 1983-84, out of the 800 km, 489 km, mostly on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, was demarcated, but the process met with a stalemate as Arunachal Pradesh did not accept the recommendations.
Subsequently, Assam discarded the claims made by Arunachal Pradesh too and moved the Supreme Court in 1989, alleging “encroachments” by Arunachal Pradesh.
Later, to resolve the dispute between the two states, the apex court appointed a local boundary commission in 2006, headed by a retired SC judge.
In September 2014, the local commission submitted its report. Multiple recommendations were made, including that Arunachal Pradesh get back some of the territories that were transferred in 1951 and it was suggested that both states should arrive at a consensus through discussions.
The Namsai Declaration
Though the border dispute between the two states continued to remain a contagious subject for successive governments on both sides, the efforts to resolve the age-old dispute gained momentum in 2022 when both the states, ruled by BJP, decided to talk it out.
Subsequently, the two states decided that all border issues between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will be confined to those raised before a local commission in 2007. On December 26, 2007, Arunachal Pradesh presented a local commission with a list of some 123 villages.
Following this, both the states formed 12 Regional Committees, each covering the 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh and the counterpart districts of Assam, for joint verification of 123 disputed areas and thereafter make recommendations to respective state governments keeping in view the historical perspective, administrative convenience, contiguity and people’s will to define the interstate boundary between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The first joint meeting of the inter-state regional committees was held on August 22, 2022, at Namsai, after the field inspection of the inter-state border areas.
Based on the discussions of the meeting, the first treaty between the two states – the Namsai Declaration – was signed last year. As per the Declaration, the two states agreed to restrict the number of contested villages to 86 instead of 123.
Both the state governments agreed in principle with regard to the 37 disputed villages. While Arunachal Pradesh will retain the 28 villages within its constitutional boundary, it has withdrawn its claim over three villages in Assam.
Six other villages, which could not be located on the Assam side, would also remain with Arunachal Pradesh if they exist, the agreement stated.
Centre to decide the fate of four areas
The fate of at least four disputed areas, namely Balicho, Dipik, Pacho and Dikalmukh along the borders of the two states, is likely to be decided by the Centre. Recently, the Regional Committees suggested the respective state governments to discuss the dispute regarding four bordering villages with the Centre.
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The committee members led by Assam’s water resource minister Pijush Hazarika and cabinet minister of Arunachal Pradesh Mama Natung found that villagers of Balicho, Dipik, and Dikalmukh wanted to live in Arunachal Pradesh while the majority of Pacho village wanted to live in Assam side.
Assam chief minister informed that the final report on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border dispute was likely to be forwarded to the union home ministry by mid-April.
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