Assam-Mizoram Border Tension: The government said states' cooperation was needed to resolve disputes.
Assam is dealing with boundary disputes with four states, including Mizoram, and inter-state border disputes can "only be resolved with the cooperation of state governments involved in the matter", the Home Ministry told parliament today, adding that the centre "just acts as a facilitator in such disputes".
"There are boundary disputes arising out of demarcation of boundaries and claims and counter-claims over territories have arisen between states," Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in a written reply.
As per the data available with the government, he said, out of seven boundary demarcation issue, four pertain to Assam with four different states. "There are disputes over territories between Haryana-Himachal Pradesh, union territory of Ladakh-Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra-Karnataka, Assam-Arunachal Pradesh, Assam-Nagaland, Assam- Meghalaya and Assam and Mizoram," the Minister said in his written reply.
The centre's statement in the parliament comes a day after six Assam cops were killed in clashes as tensions escalated at Assam-Mizoram border.
"The approach of the central government has consistently been that inter-state disputes can be resolved only with the cooperation of the state governments concerned and that the central government acts only as a facilitator for amicable settlement of the dispute in the spirit of mutual understanding," Mr Rai said in response to a question on the role of the government in redressing border disputes between states in the country.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah was on two day visit to northeast India this weekend and he was accompanied by Director Intelligence Bureau Arvind Kumar and Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla.
Mr Shah also had chaired a meeting with top officials of all the states in the region, and had told them that the NDA government at the Centre is keen on resolving boundary disputes among the Northeastern states and making the region peaceful and developed.
Meanwhile opposition has started targeting Mr Shah over his visit. "All eyes on the Home Minister, who was in the North-east a few days ago. His incompetence being exposed one day at a time, " Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien tweeted.