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Ready to resolve border dispute with Assam out of court, Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio
Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio said that Nagaland and Assam delegations are likely to meet Union home minister Amit Shah in February to discuss and formulate how to go about the settlement.
Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio on Monday said the state government has decided to settle its decades-old border dispute with Assam outside the court.
Rio said that Nagaland and Assam delegations are likely to meet Union home minister Amit Shah in February to discuss and formulate how to go about the settlement.
“The decision was taken at the meeting of the state assembly’s select committee today (Monday) to examine the Assam-Nagaland border issue,” Rio said.
He added that the border issue can be resolved using the Assam-Meghalaya model of setting up of a local body from both sides and dividing disputed areas. “In this regard, the select committee identified Assam-Nagaland border into four sectors,” he said on Monday.
Rio, who met Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati on Sunday, said the out-of-court settlement of the border row was discussed during the meeting. However, Sarma told journalists after the meeting that he hoped the border dispute case with Nagaland, which is pending in the Supreme Court, would be resolved in two-three years.
Nagaland and Assam share about 500-km-long boundary and disputes along the border between the two states have been going on since 1963 after Nagaland attained statehood. Past attempts made by the two state governments to resolve the perennial issue failed to make any headway. Both states have refused to accept recommendations of two commissions set up by the Centre to solve the issue and a suit is pending in the Supreme Court on the issue since 1988.
The Supreme Court also attempted to resolve the dispute amicably through mediation in 2010, but the report submitted by the mediators, comprising of two senior advocates, was rejected by both Assam and Nagaland governments. Then the apex court in 2015 ordered both the governments to file the list of their witnesses along with their testimonies in the form of affidavits with the court’s registrar. But it is reported that the progress is stalled because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
A fresh standoff occurred in the Dissoi valley reserved forest and Tsurangkong valley between the armed police forces of the two states last year, after which a chief secretary-level meeting was held on July 31 where an agreement was signed to de-escalate the situation and both states agreed to withdraw their respective forces from the disputed area.
