GUWAHATI: Three NE states, including two erstwhile princely states which were given status of full-fledged states quarter of a century agao after India’s Independence, will complete 50 years of statehood together on January 21. The princely states of Manipur and Tripura were first merged with India in 1949. They were upgraded as Union Territories in 1956 till the next upgradation as a full-fledged state on January 21, 1972. Meghalaya, on the other hand, was created as an autonomous state within Assam in 1970 and then carved out as full-fledged state together with Manipur and Tripura on the same day. Meghalaya’s capital, Shillong, was made Assam’s capital in 1874 and remained so till January, 1972. Tripura was ruled by Maharajas of Manikya dynasty and on September 9, 1949 Maharani Kanchan Prava Devi, then Maharani Regent of Tripura, signed on the merger document on behalf of Maharaja Manikya Kirit Bikram Kishore Dev Barman Bahadur, the minor ruler of Tripura. On September 21, 1949, the Maharaja of Manipur, Bodhchandra, signed the merger agreement with adviser to the Government of India in the ministry of states, Vapal Pangunni Menon, who also had signed the agreement with Tripura. But except Tripura and Manipur, the remaining five states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Assam remain engaged in violent inter-state border disputes since four of them were carved out of Assam to eventually form as separate states. Assam and Meghalaya have agreed to resolve the dispute partially, while the dispute between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh is on course for a solution soon. But Nagaland and Mizoram remain as stumbling blocks despite Union home minister Amit Shah’s direct intervention. While Mizoram and Arunachal will complete 35 years of statehood next month on the 20th, Nagaland will complete 60 years of statehood on December 1 this year. Assam became a state on January 26, 1950.