Nearly 80,000 hectares of land belonging to Assam across 15 districts have been encroached upon by six neighbouring states, the State Assembly was told on Thursday.

Replying to a query by AGP MLA Keshab Mahanta during the question hour, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Border Areas Development Siddeque Ahmed said that a total of 77,829.47 hectares of land in Assam are under the control of six neighbouring states at present. The States include Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura, he said.

Out of the six states, Nagaland is in possession of the highest amount of land of Assam - 59,159.77 hectares, the Minister said, adding Tripura has forcibly occupied 25 hectares of land, the least among the six States.

Arunachal Pradesh has encroached upon 13,211.05 hectares of land, while Meghalaya, Mizoram and West Bengal have grabbed 3,183.64 hectares, 1,986 hectares and 264 hectares in Assam respectively, Mr.Ahmed said.

The 15 affected districts in Assam are Tinsukia, Dhemaji, Goalpara, Jorhat, Sonitpur, Cachar, Sivasagar, Karbi Anglong, Kamrup Rural, Kamrup Metro, Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Karimganj and Kokrajhar, he said. “Border dispute is a big and old problem. We are fighting Supreme Court cases against Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland,” Mr.Ahmed added. He said that the case related to encroachment by Nagaland was at the last stage of settlement and a judgement is expected around April.