ITANAGAR, 8 Mar: Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday told the assembly that his government will take the people of the state into confidence before arriving at a conclusion over the decades-old boundary dispute with Assam.
Responding to a zero hour discussion in the House, initiated by senior Congress member Ninong Ering, the chief minister said that 12 regional committees, constituted by the state government to study the disputed areas with Assam, have submitted their reports to the authorities concerned, and that he would take up the matter with his Assam counterpart sometime soon.
“Before arriving at a conclusion, I will sit again with the committees to have a clear picture of the boundary areas. If there is any public grievance, it will be placed with Assam,” Khandu said.
Earlier, Ering had pointed out that the Daying Ering Wildlife Sanctuary (DEWS) in East Siang district, which is named after his father, has its office in a territory that is currently controlled by Assam.
He also said that at least 5,000 hectares of sanctuary land, which had originally belonged to Arunachal, were given to Assam during an exercise to demarcate the borders of the two states.
Assam and Arunachal have constituted 12 regional committees each to expedite
the process of identification and early resolution of disputed areas along their 804.10-km boundary.
The two states have identified 86 areas of dispute in the Namsai Declaration, which was signed by Khandu and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on 22 July last year. (PTI)
