Arunachal Pradesh – Assam border dispute

• IAS NEXT, Lucknow
• 27, Apr 2022

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.