[ Bengia Ajum ]
ITANAGAR, 31 Oct: The Supreme Court on Monday heard the writ petition filed by the villagers of Durpai in Lower Siang district, opposing the MoU signed on 20 April this year by the governments of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, in which both the states agreed to looping of the land in certain villages.
The court ordered that the writ petition be tagged with the original suit (No 2) of 1988 (State of Assam vs Union of India).
The people (of the affected villages) are strongly opposed to the looping of the land in respect of Durpai, Champak Chojo and Sogum villages of Arunachal and Pasoni Camp, Kailaspur, Rasbongsi, Modonpur and Jengrai villages of Assam.
The matter was heard by a three-judge bench led by the CJI. It has been listed next for 3 November.
The petition was filed by one Reli Kena and 12 others. Reportedly, the legal representatives of the Assam and the Arunachal governments did not turn up during the hearing. They have been directed to attend the next hearing.
The MoU was signed to settle the interstate boundary disputes between Assam and Arunachal in respect of 123 villages placed before the local commission by the state government [vide Letter No HMB (B)-69/2006 Vol-I, dated 26 December, 2007].
Earlier, the people of Durpai, under the aegis of the Durpai Development Committee, had written to Chief Minister Pema Khandu, opposing the looping system. They went to the SC in August and filed a writ petition, opposing the looping system.
“First of all, the MoU was signed without even consulting affected people like us. Secondly, there is no clarity in the MoU. We oppose it and therefore we had to knock on the door of the SC after the state government failed to address our grievances,” said Reli Kena.
He alleged that “the looping system is an attempt to take away the land of the people of Durpai and deprive them of their rightful ownership of the land.”
“Durpai is the oldest village in Kangku circle of Lower Siang district. We have been paying revenues to various government departments of the state since ages. How can suddenly we accept this decision to loop our village with those of Assam?” he said.
Meanwhile, the people of Durpai have appealed to the state government to support them in the court.
In July 2022, Arunachal and Assam signed the Namsai Declaration with the aim of resolving the boundary disputes between the two states. The declaration was signed after the chief ministers of both the states – 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 states share a nearly 800-kilometre-long boundary.