GUWAHATI: Assam’s territory was encroached upon 56 times this year by four neighbouring states, the state Assembly was informed on Monday.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, replying to a question of opposition leader Debabrata Saikia, said that neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram intruded into Assam’s territory in 11 districts.

“To maintain the status quo or to recover the invaded lands, the state government has written many letters to the respective states and the Centre and held meetings with those states,” Patowary said on behalf of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who holds the Home portfolio.

According to Patowary, the highest number (17) of cases of encroachment were reported from Cachar district adjoining Mizoram while the remaining intrusion cases took place in West Karbi Anglong, Karbi Anglong, Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Jorhat, Karimganj, Sadiya, Tinsukia and Sivasagar districts, which shares borders with Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram.

The border rows between Assam and Mizoram, and Assam and Nagaland turned violent clashes and road blockades in October and November. One person was killed and many houses were burnt in Cachar.

After over a month-long serious dispute including road blockade between Assam and Mizoram, the Assam-Nagaland inter-state border row cropped up.

With the intervention of the Central government, Central para-military troopers were deployed along the Assam-Mizoram inter-state borders to prevent fresh troubles.

Assam shares 2616.1 km borders with six northeastern states – Nagaland (512.1 km), Arunachal Pradesh (804.1 km), Manipur (204.1 km), Mizoram (164.6 km), Tripura (46.3 km) and Meghalaya (884.9 km) besides 127 Km with West Bengal.

In a separate question, Patowary told the house that 98.35 per cent fencing work at 263 km Assam-Bangladesh border has been completed. He said that the 1.65 per cent work remained incomplete following the objections by the Border Guard Bangladesh.

The India-Bangladesh border in Assam is guarded by the Border Security Force while the 267 km Indo-Bhutan international border is manned by the Sashastra Seema Bal. The second line of defence is being provided by the Assam Police.

He also said that as per the provision of the Assam Accord, 1,34,810 illegal infiltrators have been detected so far in Assam and around 30,000 of them were expelled from the country.

The 3-day winter session of the Assam Assembly began on Monday.

IANS