Govt adopts ‘give and take approach’ to resolve boundary disputes: Pijush Hazarika

Guwahati, Sep 14: The BJP-led government in Assam today informed the state assembly that it has adopted ‘give and take policy guided by the popular wishes of people’ in its endeavour to resolve vexed inter-state boundary disputes with the neighbouring states in the region.

The state’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pijush Hazarika responding to a debate on the inter-state boundary disputes resolution process initiated by the BJP-led government said that disputes are being tried to resolve laying emphasis on the give and take policy based on people’s mandate. “It is also a fact that neither state can forcefully keep people in their area if the latter do not wish to remain there,” the minister said.  

The six ‘less complicated’ disputed areas between Assam and Meghalaya that were taken up for final settlement in March this year included Tarabari (4.69 sq km), Gizang (13.53 sq km), Hahim (3.51 sq km), Boklapara (1.57 sq km), 2.29 sq km area of Khanapara-Pilangkata and Ratacherra with 11.20 sq km.

The two states had on August 21 initiated the second phase of chief minister-level discussions to resolve border issues in the remaining six disputed sites, deciding to constitute regional committees for making site visits and holding stakeholder/public consultations, an exercise similar to the one adopted in case of the ‘less-complicated’ inter-state boundary sites.

Simultaneously, the decades-long border resolution process between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh has also been expedited with regional committees from the two states already visiting several villages along the inter-state boundary and interacting with residents to know their aspirations.

The regional committees of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are scheduled to submit the reports of the site visits to the respective governments by September 15, 2022.

The minister slammed previous governments in the state for not taking pragmatic initiatives to address the inter-state boundary disputes with neighbouring states over the past five decades.

Countering the Opposition’s stance on the inter-state boundary issues, Hazarika said that the “indifference of the previous governments in Assam to address the boundary disputes with neighbouring states had earned Assam a bad name elsewhere in the country. Hence, now the present BJP-led government has taken pro-active initiatives to resolve the border issues in the right earnest.