Centre and Arunachal Pradesh finds middle ground on issue of imposing AFSPA

NEW DELHI: The Centre and the Congress-ruled Arunachal Pradesh have found middle ground on the issue of imposing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and have agreed to reduce the area of its applicability and keep the capital of the northeastern state out of its jurisdiction.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs will withdraw a month-old notification that had placed the entire area of 12 districts bordering the state of Assam under the act. The ministry will issue a new notification, limiting the act to the jurisdiction of 16 police stations in nine districts.

With this, the area under coverage in the nine districts will widen to a 30-km belt along the Arunachal-Assam border from 20 km before the current notification was issued. The three other border districts — Tirap, Changlang and Longding — will continue to be covered entirely by AFSPA, as has been the case since the 1990s.

On March 27, 2015, the home ministry had extended AFSPA to the entire area of these 12 districts, drawing protests from state chief minister Nabam Tuki.The state’s main concern was its capital, Itanagar, in Papum Pare district also getting covered by AFSPA.