Arunachal Pradesh “No Parking” board on Assam land draws sharp criticism from public

A display board stating “No Parking” installed by Arunachal Traffic Police at Jonai in Dhemaji drew sharp reactions from all quarters.

Reacting to the incident Asom Jatiayabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad stated that Arunachal Pradesh had previously tried to be digitally aggressive by claiming a few kilometres of Assam part of Arunachal Pradesh.

“Via Google Maps, they were trying to be digitally aggressive,” alleged an AJYCP leader said.

The state governments of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh signed an agreement (Namsai Declaration) in July to end border issues between the two states and decided to “restrict” the number of disputed villages to 86 instead of 123.

Also Read: Assam-Arunachal Border issue inches closer to resolution after 3rd meet in Guwahati

The regional committees formed following the signing of the pact visited the disputed areas between the two states.

The chief ministers of both states met at Namsai to sign the declaration to initiate talks to end the border dispute between the two states which is nearly over 7 decades old.

In September Union Home Minister Amit Shah met with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart CM Pema Khandu in New Delhi to discuss issues related to the state boundaries.

Sarma after the meeting had said that both of the states were in favour of amicably resolving all the long-standing issues “once and for all”.

Again in November, the chief ministers of both states met for a high-level meeting in Guwahati.

The meeting chaired by the two chief ministers of both of the states reviewed the progress made by the regional committees to submit reports for dispute resolution.

The two states share an 804.1 km-long border. The grievance of Arunachal Pradesh which was made a union territory in 1972 is that several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities were unilaterally transferred to Assam.

After Arunachal Pradesh achieved statehood in 1987, a tripartite committee was appointed which recommended that certain territories be transferred from Assam to Arunachal. Assam contested this and the matter is in the Supreme Court.

Recently in Lok Sabha, Assam MP Gaurav Gogoi said that even if the states are part of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) border disputes in those states have raised concern.