Court appointed Local Boundary Commission has visited Gumto and Kimin in Papum Pare and Dollungmukh in Lower Subansiri districts of Arunachal for inspection of the boundary with Assam. The Commission headed by Justice (retd) Tarun Chatterjee on Tuesday went to the areas to assess the ground reality.
The team went around the inter-state boundary at Taraso under Balijan circle of Papum Pare district, official sources said. Besides commission members Kamal Naidu and SP Goel, the team included Arunachal Home Commissioner C B Kumar, border affairs Director R K Sharma, IGP Arvind Deep and other high ranking government officials.
The Assam government was represented by Secretary (border areas) Gyanendra Tripathy, OSD (border areas) Dasrath Deka, Sonitpur DC Lolit Gogoi and other senior officers.
Meanwhile, the Galo People’s Federation (GPF) expressed concern over the ‘lukewarm’ response of the community and its elected representatives towards the visit of the Commission, appointed by the Supreme Court, for inspection of the boundary involving Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. In a meeting here on Wednesday, the GPF while reiterating the demand for scrapping one-man Bordoloi Commission of 1951, appealed to all Galo members including the seven MLAs of West Siang district to inspect the alleged disputed area on their own.
While having decided to stand by the earlier demarcated boundary, the Federation made it clear that the society would not ‘compromise’ even an inch of its land. The GPF reposed hopes on the visiting officials from Delhi for permanent settlement of the boundary problem.
Further, it urged the Commission team not only to visit Likabali but also the area up to Durpai including Kangku, Germe, Raate, Pale and Dipa.
In a meeting at Naharjan LP School in neighbouring Sonitpur district of Assam, the local representatives called for maintaining status quo after showing banners to register protest.
The boundary dispute arose because of the 1951 notification on the basis of one-man Bordoloi Committee report that demarcated the boundary between Assam and Arunchal Pradesh which was ab initio rejected by the later.
As the boundary issue has been agitating the minds of the people of both states despite their age-old cultural relations, the Supreme Court had on September 25, 2006 appointed justice (retd) SN Vairava to be assisted by two other members with specific direction that the panel shall identify the boundaries between Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Justice Vairava later opted out as the commissioner and he was replaced by Justice Chatterjee on January 20, 2010. However, at that time, the apex court made it clear that it was not a boundary commission as postulated in the Constitution but only a local commission.
A meeting was held between the Local Commission and Arunachal government on August 1, 2007 here during which the state government had submitted that it would make a proposal once again to the Assam government for adjustments in the boundary taking into consideration the ground reality.
However, on the basis of submission by the state government for ground inspection, a map was drawn at the directive of the commission and the present team is on a mission to study the ground reality.
The team is scheduled to visit Gumto and Kimin in Papum Pare district besides Dollungmukh in Lower Subansiri today while it would visit Likabali in West Siang district and Gerukamukh in Lower Subansiri before leaving for Guwahati the next day, sources said.
The commission after visiting various disputed places for physical verification of the ground reality is expected to submit its final report on the basis of its finding to the Supreme Court for thrashing out an amicable and lasting solution to the contentious issue, sources added. (PTI)