Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 9 Sep: The affected people of the areas along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh boundary are still at loggerheads with the regional boundary committee, as the Durpai Development Committee (DDC) on Saturday rejected the looping method to resolve the boundary issue.
Assam and Arunachal had signed a historic memorandum of understanding, aimed at resolving most of the boundary disputes, in the presence of union Home Minister Amit Shah on 20 April. The two states share a nearly 800-kilometre-long boundary, and the disputed areas that the MoU deals with comprise 123 boundary villages, spanning 12 districts of Arunachal and eight districts of Assam.
In a press conference on Saturday, members of the DDC claimed that, as Durpai is the oldest village in Kangku circle of Lower Siang district, applying the looping system to resolve the boundary dispute with Assam in Durpai area would be unacceptable.
DDC general secretary Regi Bui said that the committee is demanding that the government rectify the looping system mentioned in the MoU between Assam and Arunachal.
“The villagers of Durpai are original inhabitants of the state of Arunachal Pradesh since time immemorial, and are affected by the boundary dispute. Durpai has been transferred to the state of Assam by forming a loop system as per the MoU,” Bui said.
The DDC reiterated that the looping system should be immediately rectified, and that ‘as is where is’ should be adopted as the basis for resolving the dispute.
“In case the state government fails to address the people of Durpai village, we would like the area to remain an ‘unsolved boundary’ issue,” the DDC GS added.
“Our village is there since Ahom period. We have documents of revenue paid to the Arunachal government and timber permit issued by the Arunachal government,” Bui said.
“From Assam government, we have no schemes and no development. There is no type of public settlement from the Assam side. Though the Assam forest department claims it, there has been no afforestation and plantation from the Assam side,” he claimed.
“We have no dispute with the people along the boundary. We have been living in harmony for generations. If the settlement is made outside the court, it should be made for the welfare of the people of both sides,” he added.
The DDC reiterated that, if the government fails to listen to its demand, it would boycott the revisit of the regional committee and the villagers would continuously boycott the committee.
It further stated that the people of Durpai would resort to an agitation themed ‘No boundary, no electricity’ “by disrupting the ongoing work of the power grid transmission 132 power line passing through our area.”
