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Steps on to solve State boundary dispute

By Correspondent

ITANAGAR, April 3 � The Centre is making all efforts to find a lasting solution to the decades-old Assam-Arunachal boundary dispute, said Union Home Minister P Chidambaram at a press briefing at Banquet Hall here last night.

Chidambaram said the Supreme Court-constituted one-man Boundary Commission, headed by Justice Tarun Kumar Chatterjee, who replaced Justice Variabha recently, is looking into the pros and cons of the boundary issue and is expected to send a report to the Home Ministry soon.

�Once the report comes in, the Union Cabinet will discuss the matter and hopefully will come out with a common reaching ground,� he said.

The Union Home Minister, who earlier had an over two-hour-long security review meeting with high level officers of Arunachal Pradesh Police, Army, CRPF, Assam Rifles, ITBP, SSB and intelligence agencies, said that the Centre would see to it that its ceasefire agreement with the NSCN factions is maintained in letter and spirit.

�As per the ceasefire agreement between the Centre and the NSCN, no militant activities will be permissible. If any outfit goes for subversive activities, it will amount to violation of the agreement,� said the Home Minister, who was flanked by Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and State Home Minister Tako Dabi, during the press conference.

He said even though the provisions of ceasefire agreement with NSCN factions did not apply to the trouble-torn Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal, it did not mean that militant outfits could

carry out any subversive activity in these two districts.

On continuation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in some parts of NE region, including Tirap-Changlang, the Union Minister disclosed that steps were on to come up with a more humane law to replace the AFSPA. He said the Union Cabinet would look into the report sent in by the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee and also by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission.

�The Union Cabinet is soon to take a final decision whether to replace the AFSPA once it goes through the pros and cons of the recommendations made by the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee and the Second Administrative Reforms Commission,� he said.

On being queried on Centre�s stand not to go for Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan for implementation of watershed projects in Arunachal following objections from China, Chidambaram said that it was upto the Centre to decide whether to take loan from ADB or World Bank.

�It is the Central Government that will decide whether to take loan from ADB or World Bank or manage on its own for the projects in Arunachal Pradesh. Whatever be the source of funding, the projects of Arunachal will be on under any eventualities,� he asserted.

Commenting on the vexed Chakma-Hajong refugee issue, Chidambaram said the Centre was yet to find any concrete solution due to cropping up of diverse opinions. �We are coming up with different views on the issue. Hopefully, a solution would come out once a middle path is reached at through difference in views,� he said.

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