Guwahati, Oct 11: The regional committees of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh had a marathon ministerial-level meeting on Monday evening to deliberate on 28 revenue villages situated in areas covered by Biswanath, North Lakhimpur and Papum Pare districts along the inter-state border and decided to amicable settle the long-pending issues there.
According to reports, the ten-hour meeting between the Assam delegation, headed by Cabinet minister Keshab Mahanta, and the Arunachal delegation, led by Cabinet minister Taba Tadir, began around 6pm on Monday and continued till around 4am on Tuesday.
The meeting, held at the conference hall of the Biswanath deputy commissioner’s office, was also attended by Behali MLA Ranjit Dutta, Gohpur MLA Utpal Bora and Doimukh MLA Tana Hali Tara along with senior government officials.
Later, addressing mediapersons, Assam minister Keshab Mahanta said a threadbare discussion was held on the earlier joint visits by regional committee members to these border villages.
“The site visits to 28 villages were reviewed and the reports which were today submitted in this regard by the respective deputy commissioners and circle officers were discussed threadbare in the meeting. Thereafter, both the sides agreed to move ahead towards amicable settlement and resolution of the pending issues even as most issues have been settled. There are however some areas that might require some monitoring at the circle officer level,” Mahanta said.
The Cabinet minister further said that the regional committees of the two states would hereafter forward the resolutions taken at the meeting to the respective chief ministers for taking a final decision.
Expressing satisfaction over the meeting, Arunachal Pradesh minister Taba Tadir hoped that the pending issues would be settled amicably, and in the interest of the people living along the inter-state border.
The marathon meeting followed another ministerial-level meeting, held earlier on Monday, to prepare a final report on the joint visits by the regional committees to four border villages falling under forest areas in Biswanath district and Pakke Kessang district.