Nearly 83,000 hectares of land claimed by Assam are currently under the occupation of four neighbouring states, the Assam Assembly was informed on Thursday.
Replying to a question by Congress MLA Rekibuddin Ahmed, Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora said 82,751.86 hectares of land spread across 18 districts of the state are under the occupation of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
According to the minister, Nagaland accounts for the largest share of the disputed land, with 59,490.21 hectares under its occupation. This is followed by Arunachal Pradesh with 16,144.01 hectares, Mizoram with 3,675.78 hectares, and Meghalaya with 3,441.86 hectares.
The affected districts include Sonitpur, Biswanath, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Golaghat, Goalpara, Cachar, Kamrup, Kamrup Metropolitan, South Salmara-Mankachar, West Karbi Anglong, Hailakandi and Sribhumi.
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Bora said the Assam government was continuing efforts to resolve the long-pending inter-state boundary disputes through dialogue with neighbouring states.
"The Assam government has progressed to settle these border disputes with the neighbouring states through dialogues," he told the House.
The minister also informed the Assembly that Assam has already signed bilateral agreements with Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, following directions from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, as part of the process to resolve the boundary disputes amicably.
Assam has longstanding border disputes with several neighbouring states, including Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. While the state has made progress in resolving disputes with Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh through negotiated settlements, discussions with Nagaland and Mizoram remain ongoing.
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