Guwahati, Jan 24: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday accused the Congress party of ‘weakening the North East’ by not solving the interstate border conflicts for decades. Sarma said it was the ‘game plan’ of the Congress to keep ‘North East divided’.

“We will soon start talks with Arunachal Pradesh to settle the border dispute. Regarding the Assam- Nagaland border dispute, the matter is in the Supreme Court. The Court has almost finished the hearing and we are expecting a verdict from the Court. Congress made Meghalaya a state. Earlier, it was a part of Assam but it was Congress who carved out the state. Not only that, we had also changed our capital to Dispur after that. Congress distributed large sq km of land to Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya,” Sarma said.

Congress has opposed the plan of ‘give and take’ arrangement of Assam and Meghalaya government to settle the border dispute. Sarma alleged that had the Congress party demarcated boundaries these states would not have faced such problems.

“It was the Congress that made conspiracies to weaken the North East. If they would have earlier clarified on boundary demarcation of North Eastern states, today we would have not faced all these. Congress has no right to question us. Congress were either casual or had planned a conspiracy while carving out the North East,” Sarma further said.

Assam and Meghalaya have submitted their respective recommendations to the Ministry of Home Affairs to amicably resolve the vexed boundary issue. Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya met Union Home minister Amit Shah earlier this week.