GS Paper 3:
Topics Covered: Internal security related issues.
Context:
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma have decided to form district-level committees for settling their inter-state boundary disputes.
- Recently, the Union government gave the seal of approval to an agreement to partially resolve the disputed sectors on the Assam-Meghalaya border.
Genesis of Assam – Arunachal Pradesh border dispute:
- Assam has had boundary disputes with all the north-eastern States that were carved out of it.
- Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram were separated from Assam as Union Territories in 1972 and as States in 1987.
- None of the new States accepted the “constitutional boundary” that they said was dictated by the partisan administration of undivided Assam without consulting the tribal stakeholders.
- The issue with Arunachal Pradesh has more to do with a 1951 report prepared by a sub-committee headed by Assam’s first Chief Minister, Gopinath Bordoloi.
The dispute:
Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have disputes at about 1,200 points along their 804 km boundary.
Efforts to resolve the dispute:
The apex court appointed a local boundary commission in 2006 headed by one of its retired judges.
- In its September 2014 report, this commission recommended that Arunachal Pradesh should get back some of the areas transferred in 1951 besides advising both the States to find a middle path through discussions. This did not work out.
Insta Curious:
Did you know that in 1873 the British government introduced the inner-line regulation vaguely separating the plains from the frontier hills that were later designated as the North-East Frontier Tracts in 1915?
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- About the dispute.
- Geographical locations and boundaries of North Eastern States.
- The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act of 1873.
- Lushai Hills and the plains of Cachar.
Sources: the Hindu.
