Itanagar: The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) while welcoming the local boundary commission led by retired Justice Tarun Chatterjee, which is currently studying the interstate boundary issue between Arunachal and Assam on Friday, said it would ‘not compromise on an inch of land in Arunachal’.
“The AAPSU is opposed to the notification issued in 1951, without the knowledge of the people of Arunachal Pradesh, on the basis of the one-sided Bordoloi Commission report,” the apex students’ body of the state said and urged the commission to genuinely consider the case of Arunachal Pradesh so that the people of both the states may coexist peacefully.
The commission while studying the issue should take into consideration the traditional rights of communities with due emphasis on the landholding pattern of the individual owners as per their ancestral belongings, irrespective of the states, the AAPSU said in a communique here.
AAPSU also sought a review of the Reserved Forest Notification for the boundary areas, saying the notification along the interstate boundary was ‘executed arbitrarily, without taking into consideration the ownership rights,’ and that the eviction drives initiated by the forest departments of both the states ‘have been the driving force behind the boundary conflicts.’
On the other hand, it said, the map presented by the Geological Survey of India in 1972 ‘misrepresented facts, which has created further confusion and misunderstanding among the dwellers on the boundaries.
Urging the commission to visit all the vulnerable places along the interstate boundary in order to bring about a logical conclusion, the AAPSU assured its full cooperation to any step to reach an amicable and lasting solution to the contentious boundary dispute that has at times polluted the age-old relations between the two states. (PTI)
