Centre urges NE states to use satellite imagery

After the Assam-Mizoram boundary disputes, the Union government has urged the northeastern states to resolve the decades-old interstate border issues using satellite imagery. On Saturday, Assam and Nagaland agreed to withdraw forces from the disputed border and monitor the area by using UAVs and satellite imagery from the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC) based in Shillong.

Two senior government officials listed three advisories sent by the Union home ministry to Assam and Mizoram in June this year asking them to show “restraint.” On July 9, the ministry held a meeting of chief secretaries from Assam and Mizoram in New Delhi to discuss the border standoff. The advisory was issued on June 4, June 15 and June 30, 2021 by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), they added.

The clash between Assam and Mizoram police took place on July 26, a day after the visit of Union home minister Amit Shah, to Shillong, leading to deaths of six Assam policemen. The home minister, while visiting NESAC, had suggested the use of space technology to resolve the border dispute among the NE states. Once the demarcations of borders are done using scientific methods, there will be no scope for discrepancy and disputes could be resolved permanently, the officials said.


After the July 26 border row, the MHA has ordered deployment of CRPF at the disputed site to monitor the situation, with union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, holding reviews with state government functionaries and the CRPF. “The situation is expected to be defused in the coming days with Assam and Mizoram chief ministers mutually resolving the issue,” said another senior official adding that a neutral probe by a central agency like CBI or NIA is unlikely to be ordered.