Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said Assam is committed to resolving the border dispute with its four neighboring states so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a united North East can be realized.
“Assam has disputes with Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland and we have taken important steps with the first two states to resolve the issues,” Sarma said at a press conference here.
“The signing of the Namsai Declaration with Arunachal Pradesh on Friday is a historic step and we have already reduced the number of disputed villages from 123 to 86,” he said.
The chief ministers of the two northeast neighbors met at Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday and signed an agreement to resolve border issues.
Both the states were fighting for more than 15 years in the Supreme Court over the border dispute and when “we got down to resolve the issues, it was found that 28 (disputed) villages are not within Assam since the beginning, but are at a distance of 15 to 20 kms. Within the constitutional limits of Arunachal Pradesh”.
Further, our officials could not ascertain the location or existence of the six villages and though efforts were made to trace their Assamese names, they could not be found and as such Assam has no claim on these villages, he said.
Arunachal Pradesh has also claimed that the three villages do not belong to them and hence the number of disputed villages has been reduced to 86, the Assam chief minister said. “I believe that if I go for field investigation, disputes in many villages will be resolved,” he said.
“After Meghalaya, I believe yesterday was a historic day in terms of steps towards resolving the Arunachal-Assam land dispute,” Sarma said.
Referring to Nagaland, the chief minister said the issue would be resolved in the Supreme Court and till then “the two states are committed to jointly develop some areas along the border”. Both the states are committed to do nothing that harms the age-old friendship and unity. Regarding Mizoram, he said that Assam’s Border Affairs Minister Atul Bora will visit the neighboring state soon and we hope that talks will start soon.
In the wake of the worst floods in the history of the state, the death toll is nearing 200 and more than 90 lakh people have been affected, an assistance of Rs 1,000 has been provided to over one lakh student beneficiaries from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
CM Sarma said, “In our humble efforts to provide relief to the students affected during the recent floods in the state, we have provided assistance of ₹1,000 to over 1 lakh student beneficiaries from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. It is our sincere commitment to stand by the students in this difficult time.”
He said that in 9,980 villages in 34 districts, a total of 8.929 lakh people have been affected by the floods and 25,670 houses have been completely destroyed. Apart from this, 195 people have died in floods and landslides. 37 people are still missing.
There are 278,260 families in the list of partially damaged houses. Total number of flood victims who took shelter in government and private institutions during two protracted floods in the state 742,2 Boats, SDRF and NDRF forces rescued 98,500 people from rivers, floods and embankments
CM Sarma further said that a total of 240,960 hectares of agricultural land and 54,837 livestock killed in the floods are still many people in shelters in the state, though the situation is much better now.
Earlier, Rs 3,800 was sanctioned to each family already living in relief camps and now Rs 1,000 to 11,539 students who lost their books in the floods.
The CM officially handed over the fund from Janta Bhavan on Saturday. He also said that the government will visit the flood affected areas and help the homeless and vulnerable people.
He further said that funds would be released from September 30 for the reconstruction of damaged houses as well as broken dams, roads and public institutions.
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