Positive start

On Tuesday, Assam and Meghalaya announced that they have signed an agreement to resolve their five-decade-old boundary dispute in six of the 12 locations. The agreement was signed in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The pact will resolve the protracted dispute in six of the 12 places along the 884.9 km boundary between the two states. This is a piece of encouraging news for the entire NE region. Assam has historical boundary disputes with states, like Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Mizoram. Many people have lost lives in the boundary clashes.

Arunachal Pradesh is one of the worst suffering states. The people of the state living along the Arunachal-Assam boundary have suffered a lot at the hands of the Assam Forest and police officials. Development projects, especially road constructions have not been allowed to be taken up along the inter-state boundary by Assam officials. This has led to clashes between the two sides.

The decision of the Assam and Meghalaya governments to sign an agreement and make effort to resolve the boundary dispute will hopefully pave the way for other NE states. Assam, which is the gateway to the NE region, has an important role in defusing the boundary dispute. A positive start has been made by Assam and Meghalaya.