Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart Pema Khandu on Wednesday decided to form district-level committees to find a solution to the long disputes on the inter-state borders in a time-bound manner.
The two CMs along with ministers and senior officers from both sides met in Guwahati, wherein it was decided to form the committees. This was the second CM-level meeting.
"The district committees will undertake joint surveys in the disputed areas to find tangible solutions to the long-pending issue based on historical perspective, ethnicity, contiguity, people’s will and administrative convenience of both the states," Sarma tweeted after the meeting.
The meeting comes weeks after Assam and Meghalaya governments signed an agreement (March 29) to end disputes in six out of 12 sites of contention on the inter-state borders.
However, the Centre would take the final call regarding the demarcation of the border between the two states.
Discussions to find a solution to the disputes in six other sites is on.
Sarma had earlier said that the Assam government wants to follow the same model to find a solution to the disputes regarding 122 villages (850 sqkm) on the borders with Arunachal Pradesh. The disputes are between 12 districts in Arunachal Pradesh and eight districts in Assam.
Assam has border disputes with Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya for more than 50 years. The process to end the border disputes gained a push after six Assam policemen were gunned down by their Mizoram counterparts in July last year on the inter-state border with Mizoram.
The petitions regarding Assam-Nagaland borders are pending in the Supreme Court while nothing significant has been achieved in finding a solution to a similar conflict with Mizoram yet.
Home Minister Amit Shah wants the disputes to end by 2024.