ITANAGAR, Aug 27 - Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu today assured the State Assembly that he would write to his Assam counterpart, Sarbananda Sonowal, to resolve the boundary row with the neighbouring State as early as possible.
Intervening in the discussion during the Question Hour, Khandu said that soon after the formation of the new Government at the Centre in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave directions to the two Chief Ministers to sit across the table to resolve the boundary dispute between the neighbouring States.
�Both Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah advised us that such disputes be settled before we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Indian Independence. I will request the Assam Chief Minister to resolve the boundary matter through talks, not through court,� he said.
Arunachal Pradesh shares a 716-km boundary with Assam.
�Since the boundary dispute between the two States that cropped up in 1979, is pending with the country�s apex court and the matter being sub judice, I cannot say about its final settlement,� Home Minister Bamang Felix said while replying to a supplementary question raised by BJP member Tana Hali Tara.
Felix also urged the elected representatives of the constituencies concerned sharing boundary with Assam to take �clearance� from the State Home Department before taking up any developmental scheme.
The Home Minister�s statement came in view of repeated incidents of border skirmish between the two States.
Earlier, the Doimukh MLA, while drawing the attention of the Government towards the plight of people living along the inter-State boundary, sought to know the present status of the Arunachal Pradesh-Assam boundary dispute pending in the Supreme Court and how much time the Government would take to settle the case. He accused the Assam Forest Department of violating the status quo time and again.
