[ Bengia Ajum ]
DURPAI, 18 Jan: The people living here Kangku circle of the Lower Siang district have alleged that people from neighbouring Assam have started rampant encroachment of land belonging to Arunachalees before the boundary dispute between Assam and Arunachal is resolved.
The locals alleged that the people of Durpai, Sogum and Champakchojo are having sleepless nights fearing that they might lose their land.
The people of the area have been forced to guard their lands.
“In this chilling winter, we are awake day and night to safeguard our ancestral land from the preying eyes of Assam. They are trying to capture as much land as possible before the final round of talks over boundary dispute is held between two states,” shared a local resident.
Even though both the Arunachal and Assam governments are working towards resolving the long pending boundary dispute the locals here alleged that the situation remains tense on the ground.
“The Assam officials who were part of the regional committee formed by both the state governments to resolve boundary disputes as per Namsai Declaration are claiming Durpai, Sogum and Champakchojo villages based on 1951 Bordoloi commission report. Arunachal has always denounced the Bordoloi commission report,” said Reli Kena, a youth leader of the area. He also shared that the situation is tense on the ground.
“Assam officials have geo-tagged our villages. Recently, the education minister of Assam Ranoj Pegu and several officials secretly visited the area. We fear that this adamant attitude of Assam officials to try to capture Durpai, Sogum and Champakchojo villages might jeopardize this effort to resolve the boundary dispute,” he added. He further informed that Durpai is one of the largest Galo villages and it along with Sogum and Champakchojo have never been part of Assam in history.
“Assam has nothing to do with our villages. This is just like China claiming Arunachal as part of them. Only on their map, our village may exist in Assam. We have schools, PMGSY road, and now a primary health centre coming up all built by the Arunachal government. In fact people of Assam and their officials never venture into our areas without our permission unless they visit secretly,” added Kena.
He also shared that the people of the area want to meet Chief Minister Pema Khandu and place their grievances before the next round of talks between the two states.
On Wednesday, the people of the Lower Siang district living along the foothills held a meeting at Likabali to discuss the issue.
“It was unanimously decided that we will not part way with the three villages come what may,” informed Reli Kena.
Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in July 2022 signed ‘Namsai Declaration’ towards resolving the boundary dispute. The declaration was signed after the chief ministers of both states – Pema Khandu and Himanta Biswa Sarma – held a crucial meeting with the cabinet ministers of the two states in Namsai to “restrict or minimise the boundary disputes between the two states in respect of 123 villages placed before the Local Commission by Arunachal in 2007,” the declaration read. The two CMs met for the first time on the boundary disputes in January 2022 in Guwahati. They again met in April 2022 in Guwahati, during which it was decided, inter alia, that all boundary issues between the two states will be confined to those raised before the Local Commission in 2007.
