Strongly oppose any territorial changes to Arunachal: AAPSU on Naga talks

The AAPSU appealed to the

Centre on Wednesday to keep Arunachal Pradesh away from any kind of "territorial changes" while finding a solution to the decades-old Naga political problem.

The All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU) stated that the talks should not affect the state and its people in any way.

We welcome the initiative taken by the successive governments in resolving the Naga issue. However, we would also like to make it clear that the indigenous people of Arunachal Pradesh will strongly oppose any attempts made to change the territorial jurisdiction of the state or any kind of administrative, political or other interventions while reaching a final solution to the decades-old insurgency problem in Nagaland, it said in a statement.

The apex students' body said the Centre should also stand by the assurances given by its interlocutor and present Nagaland Governor R N Ravi in 2015.

Ravi, during his meeting with the AAPSU in 2015, had promised that Arunachals interest would not be compromised during the time of executing the final draft of the Naga Peace Accord.

The union called upon all the legislators of the state, the MPs, and the political parties to strongly oppose any possible attempts to alter the states territorial jurisdiction and administration for the proposed accord.

We are very much aware of the NSCN-IM's vision of Nagalim or Greater Nagaland but there are no Nagas in Arunachal Pradesh. We have always, on record, objected to their vested interest designs," it said.

The map of Nagalim, released by the NSCN-IM a few years ago, includes Tirap, Changlang, Longding, Anjaw, Lohit and Namsai districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

The NSCN-IM leadership is currently in Delhi and held two rounds of official-level discussions in the last few days.