Guwahati (Assam) [India], December 21 (ANI): The Assam government on Wednesday said in the state assembly that over 82,000 hectares of the state’s land have been encroached on by its neighbouring states. Replying to a written query by Congress MLA Debabrata Saikia, Assam Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora said that, a total of 82,751 hectares of Assam’s land have been encroached on by its four neighbouring states Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
According to the Assam government, Nagaland encroached on 59490.21 hectares of Assam’s land followed by 16144.01 hectares of land by Arunachal Pradesh, 3675.78 hectares of land by Mizoram and 3441.86 hectares of land by Meghalaya.
The Assam Minister further said that since January 2021 four violent incidents were taken place along the bordering areas of Assam-Meghalaya, Assam-Mizoram, Assam-Nagaland and Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. The Minister also said that to resolve the border dispute issues with the neighbouring states, the Assam government and its counterparts of Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya have formed regional committees and government-level discussions are going on.
“Both Assam and Arunachal Pradesh governments have formed 12 each regional committees to resolve the inter-state boundary dispute issue. The Assam and Meghalaya governments have also formed regional committees and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between both governments in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to resolve the border dispute issue in six dispute areas. On the other hand, to resolve the boundary dispute issue with Mizoram, government-level discussions are going on,” Atul Bora said in the written query reply.
On the other hand, the opposition Congress and AIUDF criticized the Assam government and said that the Assam government has totally failed to protect its own land. (ANI)
