Guwahati: Almost 83,000 hectares of land belonging to Assam are currently being occupied by Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram, the state Assembly was informed Wednesday.
In a reply to a query by Congress MLA Rekibuddin Ahmed, Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora said a total of 82,751.86 hectares of Assam land across 18 districts are under the control of four neighbouring states at present.
These states are Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram, he added.
Out of all the occupying states, Nagaland has captured the highest amount of land in Assam — 59,490.21 hectares. Meghalaya is forcibly owning 3,441.86 hectares of land, the least among the four states, the minister said.
Arunachal Pradesh has encroached upon 16,144.01 hectares of land, while Mizoram has grabbed 3,675.78 hectares, he added.
The 18 affected districts in Assam are Sonitpur, Biswanath, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Golaghat, Goalpara, Cachar, Kamrup, Kamrup Metropolitan, South Salmara-Mankachar, West Karbi Anglong, Hailakandi and Sribhumi.
The Assam government has progressed to settle these border disputes with the neighbouring states through dialogues. We have already signed bipartite agreements with Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh as per the instructions of the Union Home Ministry, Bora said.