Days after CMs meet, recent rigidity alongside Assam-Arunachal border

Simply days after the chief ministers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh met to debate a “everlasting answer” over the decades-old boundary dispute between the 2 states, recent tensions had been reported alongside the inter-state border on Wednesday night time.

The flashpoint is the continued Likabali-Durpai PMGSY highway challenge in Arunachal Pradesh’s Decrease Siang district — Assam claims that some components of the highway, underneath development since 2019, falls underneath its Dhemaji district.

On Wednesday night, a culvert underneath development near Hime village in Decrease Siang was burnt by “unidentified miscreants from the Assam aspect”, authorities stated. Following that, there have been unconfirmed experiences of “firing within the air” by the locals from the Arunachal Pradesh aspect on Wednesday night time.

District officers from each Dhemaji in Assam) and Arunachal Pradesh’s Decrease Siang—the 2 districts share a border of about 150 kilometres—reached the spot on Thursday morning, and stated the incident was “minor” and that the “scenario was underneath management.”

As per experiences, the strain started after an Assam Police group stopped the development of the highway at Hime.

“The Likabali-Durpai highway touches the disputed territory at some factors on the border. The day earlier than yesterday, our group stopped one such development. Since it is a disputed space, now we have prevented development on earlier events too,” stated Ranjan Bhuyan, Dhemaji district’s Superintendent of Police (SP).

Kushal Pal Singh, SP of Decrease Siang district, stated some stretches of the highway had been underneath dispute, and an argument between the Assam Police and native villagers of Hime was reported on Tuesday.

“Following that, final night time, Some miscreants from the Assam aspect set fireplace to a culvert underneath development,” stated Singh. He added that they’d acquired details about some firing within the air by locals from the Arunachal aspect, however they had been unconfirmed.

In keeping with Singh, such incidents of violence maintain taking place “sometimes”. “This was not a significant incident,” he stated.

Dhemaji SP Bhuyan added the strain was between the native individuals and that he was in fixed contact along with his Arunachal counterpart. “Each side of the administration have been assembly, speaking and attempting to resolve the scenario,” he stated.

Arunachal Pradesh, which was earlier part of Assam, shares a boundary of over 800 km with the state. The border area has reported frequent flare-ups. Clashes had been first reported in 1992, and since then, there have been a number of accusations of unlawful encroachment from each side, and intermittent clashes. The matter is within the Supreme Court docket.

In August 2021, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma advised the State Meeting there have been a minimum of 1,200 areas of dispute alongside the border with Arunachal Pradesh, and that the 2 states had been working towards fixing it.

After the Monday assembly with Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Sarma tweeted: “Fixing boundary points with neighbours is our precedence. Mentioned with Hon’ble CM of Arunachal Pradesh Sh @PemaKhanduBJP, who got here all the way in which to Guwahati, measures for a everlasting answer to the long-pending situation. We determined to conduct a floor stage survey on boundary standing.”

Later, Khandu advised The Indian Categorical that the assembly was “very constructive” “We had very constructive discussions on discovering mutually acceptable everlasting options to this drawback. Underneath the steering of Hon’ble PM and energetic assist of Hon’ble House Minister Amit Shah Ji, we are going to work in direction of resolving this and lots of vexed points within the area. All this may pave the way in which for the holistic growth of the Northeast,” he stated.