CHANGLANG, 4 Sep: The regional committees of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam on Saturday visited Rangrikan village in Namtok circle of Changlang district. Rangrikan is one of the many villages in Changlang with a boundary dispute with Assam.
The Arunachal committee comprised minister Kamlung Mossang, Deputy Speaker Tesam Pongte, MLAs Phosum Khimhun and Laisam Simai, DC (i/c) Arjun Mohan, the ZPM, GBs, members of the Tirap Changlang Longding People’s Forum (TCLPF), and representatives from Namtok, Hachengkan, Yopakan, Mallu Gaon-II and -III, Phinbiro,
Tirap Sakan, and others, while the Assam committee comprised minister Atul Bora, MLA Bhaskar Sharma, the Tinsukia DC, the Margherita assistant commissioner, the Digboi DFO, and others.
The Changlang DC explained the case scenario and the plight of the people living along the interstate boundary, and requested the committees to “do a physical survey of the boundary by involving both the parties and not just on paper.”
Representatives of the affected villages and and the TCLPF president placed their grievances before the committees.
Mossang informed that the district has five assembly constituencies that share a boundary with Tinsukia district of Assam. He added that “there’s much political will to resolve this issue once and for all this time,” and requested the public to “tackle the issue with a positive attitude.”
He also spoke about the 36 Tangsa villages situated in Margherita subdivision in Assam, out of which six villages lie along the interstate boundary.
Bora on his part told the villagers that he would take up their problems at the appropriate platform, and that the chief ministers of both the states “are proactively working together to resolve the long-pending boundary issue.”
Following the visit, the committees decided that joint teams of the DCs and other officials of the two districts would carry out a survey and submit their reports to the committee chairpersons. (DIPRO)
