Shillong, Mar 14: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday made a major announcement on the ongoing process to resolve the decades old Assam-Meghalaya boundary dispute. He announced in the Assembly that the two states are tentatively going to sign the agreement for resolving 6 of 12 areas of difference between Assam and Meghalaya on March 27 at New Delhi.
“The signing of this agreement and the final discussion with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will take place within this month itself. The tentative date which has come to me is March 27,” Sangma said while replying to the budget discussion in the Assembly.
“Therefore, all the cabinet colleagues and officials who are involved in this will be going to Delhi to mark this very important occasion and I am hopeful March 27 will be a historic day where we will be able to come to a final conclusion and sign the agreement on the six locations,” he added.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya on January 29 and was submitted to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 31, for examination and consideration of the MHA. This is part of Phase 1 of resolving the boundary disputes. The remaining 6 areas will be taken up in Phase 2, which should start immediately after the conclusion of Phase 1.
Stating that the boundary dispute has been pending for a very long time, Sangma stressed that the MDA government has been decisive and clear that the issue has to be resolved.
“There is no reason why the people in the border area have to continue suffering the way they have been, always living in fear, that somebody from Assam will come in, from the administration, from the police and pick them up, some firing will take place,” he said adding “Therefore, the government has decided that we will move forward and that is the reason why today we are on the verge of signing this agreement for the first six locations.”
Relocation of the Sweepers’ Colony
On the relocation of the Sweepers’ Colony (Harijan Colony) from Them Iew Mawlong, the chief minister said the state government is very close to resolving the issue as well.
“Within a few weeks or a month’s time, we should be able to once again come to an even more important step,” he assured.
Stating that the Meghalaya High Court had recently passed an order with regards to the case, Sangma said, “I will not speak much about it as it may be sub-judice but this is again another subject which the court has taken cognizance of and they have come out with some observation which I am sure will go in favour of us (in order to resolve the issue) in a very amicable way.”
Peace parley with HNLC
Talking about the HNLC’s peace process, the chief minister said after a lot of communication, discussion and involvement with a lot of people, the state government has been able to get a communication from the HNLC, expressing its readiness to have discussion unconditionally and within the framework of the Constitution of the country.
“The Government of India has accepted that and we have named the interlocutor and I am sure with this step, we will once again move towards a positive solution to this issue also. Of course discussions are still left, we cannot say how long it will take or what issue will come out but this is a positive step towards finding a solution towards this issue and therefore I am very hopeful that we will be able resolve this issue,” he stated.
