Staff REPORTER
ITANAGAR, Jul 30: The Arunachal Pradesh unit of National People’s Party (NPP) today urged the Pema Khandu-led BJP government in the State to convene an all-party meeting over the Assam-Arunachal boundary row to build a ‘consensus’ on the same and then hold talks with its Assam counterpart to solve the long-pending issue.
Expressing ‘disappointment’ over the recent violent border skirmishes between Assam and Mizoram, the newly-appointed NPP state president and MLA Mutchu Mithi said, “We (Arunachal Pradesh) also have a boundary dispute with Assam which has been going on for several years. I know that our State Government has started talks with its Assam counterpart on boundary dispute.
But since this is a long vexed issue, we want the State Government to call an all-party meeting as early as possible to build a consensus on the same and subsequently hold discussion with its Assam counterpart to solve the issue,” he said.
It may be mentioned here that Chief Minister Pema Khandu had earlier this month stated that Arunachal and Assam had in principle agreed to sort out the inter-state boundary issue out-of-court, for which the State Government already started its homework.
“Everything in a democratic set-up can be solved when a consensus is built. We believe that an amicable solution can be found to resolve this issue. We don’t want, what happened between Assam and Mizoram, any such unfortunate incident to happen between Assam and Arunachal.
The Arunachal government has to be very cautious and take stand of every political party here and then go ahead with its discussion with its Assam counterpart. It is going to take time, it is not going to happen overnight,” the NPP’s Roing MLA said at a press conference here.
Endorsing his party president, newly-appointed state convener Jarpum Gamlin said, “Seventeen districts of Arunachal share boundary with Assam. The State Government should be very careful when it says it will go for out-of-court settlement. Even the State’s Border Affairs Department should be very concerned with the views of the affected tribes along the boundary with Assam,” he suggested.
NPP’s state vice president & former Minister Thangwang Wangham and its general secretary & former legislator Paknga Bage were also present at the press conference. (With inputs from UNI)