Athiabari, Hahim, April 11: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has said that many villages currently on the Assam side of the border are seeking inclusion with Meghalaya and his government is aware of the demand which is why a joint demarcation survey has been initiated to bring about a solution.

The chief minister said this while campaigning for NPP candidate Ampareen Lyngdoh in the Athiabari area of West Khasi Hills on Thursday where renowned culinary chef and runners up in last year’s Masterchef India competition, Nambie Jessica Marak joined the party.

“Adjustments are being done and options are being kept open to try and bring in those villages keen to be part of our state. But I cannot reveal further since the survey is underway and this is election time,” said Conrad Sangma.

He also said that work is moving fast with the survey identifying pillars and posts of boundaries at many places.

2012 list submitted to Assam left out villages that wanted to merge with Meghalaya

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has blamed the erstwhile Meghalaya government of 2012 for failing to include the names of villages that wanted to merge with Meghalaya when it submitted the map and list of names to Assam in that year.

The Meghalaya government was then headed by Congress chief minister Mukul Sangma.

“As we speak today, there are many more villages falling under Assam that had been wanting and demanding to be part of Meghalaya. My problem is that when the then Meghalaya government in 2012 identified and selected villages, prepared a map and submitted it to the Assam government, they left out these villages,” says Conrad Sangma.

The chief minister acknowledged that this has become the biggest obstacle in negotiations with Assam.

“The Assam government is now saying that these villages were not demanded by Meghalaya at that point of time, so why now? How can we give away villages that were not part of the map provided to us by the Meghalaya government?”

But the Meghalaya chief minister says that even though they are facing obstacles, yet, there is hope of a positive outcome to the current issue.

“The current Assam CM is a practical man who knows the northeast and agrees that this problem needs to be resolved. He has worked hard in that direction which is why a substantial number of our villages that were previously on the Assam side have now been merged with Meghalaya,” mentioned Conrad Sangma.

He accused opposition parties of trying to undermine the negotiations and spreading false stories on the border issue to create a rift between the two states and differences among its people.

“We remained steadfast in our commitment to address this complex problem which is why the 2012 list was resolved by us and even the MOU was signed,” recalled the chief minister.

The difficult part remains on how to bring in those villages that didn’t make the cut to the 2012 list.

“It is quite a complex problem but we have not given up. Negotiations remain open and our endeavor is to ensure maximum villages that want to merge with Meghalaya get that opportunity. We will take it up with the Assam government for maximum resolution,” assured the chief minister in his address to the public of Athiabari, an area that makes the boundary with Assam and has previously faced border disputes over territorial claims.

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