Shillong, Jan 15: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said the second phase of border talks between Assam and Meghalaya for resolving the remaining six areas of difference will be resumed very soon.

“We have decided that we will meet after these elections but elections are now over so we are scheduled to meet very soon,” Sangma told reporters.

“In fact I had a talk yesterday with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on some other issues. We were discussing some other aspects. We had mentioned this point about this meeting quite overdue so he had asked me to suggest the dates and we hope that we will be able to meet soon,” he added.

On the alleged illegal encroachment from Assam side, Sangma said, “Of course the general approach have been that we have to allow the development under central schemes to be implemented, whichever state implements it, the public should suffer and if there are any specific schemes that are being implemented then in consultation with the deputy commissioners, it should be done. That is the basic principle but obviously since it is a very large area and different stakeholders are involved, there could be situations where some individuals do something and some don’t do anything – so those situations could come up but on a case to case basis, the deputy commissioners are looking into any issues that come up.”

“In fact I am deeply involved and if there are any more issues that come up, anybody can contact me directly on my mobile phone and directly the call goes to Assam CM. So we have a very strong communication network to ensure that we don’t see any kind of complication or untoward incidents in the future and minimise any kind of tensions in these areas,” he added.

Asked, the chief minister said, “Today we are talking about dialogues between two states. We are not talking about war going on between two nations. These are two states in the same country. Therefore, it is only through dialogues that we can talk. We have a very good relationship with our Assam counterparts, we have a good relationship with Delhi, so most of our issues do get resolved.”

Stating that maintaining a tough stand on the issue will not help, Sangma however said, “But of course, we cannot compromise on our stand. We cannot compromise on our points. We cannot allow things to be done without consultations with us. So there are certain things that we will be very firm with but it doesn’t mean that we will have to talk tough to be able to achieve things. Firmness is important, dialogue is important, commitment is important, that is what we are following.”

“It is a complicated issue with many problems attached to it which has been there for the last 52 years so it does take time to entangle these kinds of knots but efforts are on. We found some way forward and hopefully with more efforts, we will be able to resolve most of the issues in the future,” he added further.

Read: Bangladesh’s recognition of CHT as a “foreign affairs” issue sparks hope for indigenous rights

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