Shillong, July 10: A team of Ri-Bhoi District Congress Committee comprising of legislators and MDCs on Friday visited Jatalong village situation along the disputed areas between Assam and Meghalaya to understand the effect of boundary issue has on the residents of such villages.

The visit was led by president of the Ri-Bhoi District Congress Committee, Nongpoh MLA Mayralborn Syiem and was accompanied by Umroi MLA George Lyngdoh, Member of District Council (MDC) Charles Marngar (Mawhati Constituency) and MDC Balajied Ranee (Nongpoh Constituency).

Located in a remote area of the Ri-Bhoi District, Jatalong village consisting of 63 houses with a population of over 300 population, with almost no development taking place. The village has been mapped under the Survey of India under Assam government and has declared Jatalong as a forest reserve area.

The Congress team held an interactive session with various stakeholders like village headmen and traditional heads from 18 villages under Raid Nongtung, to get a better grasp of the ground reality and their problems.

MLA George Lyngdoh said the problems of the people here were not new. Whatever the Committee is seeing now is a continuous kind of harassment that these people have been facing from time to time. He mentioned that access to livelihoods, healthcare, development and especially to proper and safe governance was far from reality here.

“The dispute for block 1 and 2, there is this word dispute, but these areas actually belong to Meghalaya. We have been seeking the retransfer of these areas right from 1950 and all the subsequent governments have been harping on this particular issue to retransfer these areas. But over the years the population and demography has changed so how are we going to take this forward considering the change of demography and the needs of the people. So this session was to understand the ground realities and also the aspirations of the people,” Lyngdoh said.

Nongpoh MLA Mayralborn Syiem, who has time and again been very vocal about the boundary issues between Assam and Meghalaya, felt that this issue is very sensitive and it is a continuous process. He also recalled that there have been 22 chief minister level talks between Assam-Meghalaya till today.

“We hope that this time before completing 50 years of statehood as desired by each and every citizen and at the same time we have seen the reports of the wish of the Union Home Minister that before completing 75 years of independence of India the Union government would like to see all the North East states have a peaceful relationship with regard to border issue,” he said.

He further urged the government that this time they should hold very serious talks with the Assam government so that this issue can be resolved once and for all.

Mawhati MDC, Charles Marngar mentioned that he has been raising this issue numerous times in the sessions of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC). “Today I am happy that the leaders from Ri-Bhoi have come here to meet with the traditional heads and hope that they will take up this matter especially with the present govt to solve this problem,” said Marngar.

MDC Balajied Ranee informed that during the interactive session it was learnt that the traditional and local heads have already submitted important land documents to the KHADC. Ranee said that now it is upon the state government to thoroughly study these documents and get a better clarity to hold talks with Assam Government.

Woes of Villagers

Meanwhile, the residents and the local heads expressed their longing to live a life free from any conflicts. The residents said that they have been waiting for a solution so that they can forever be citizens of Meghalaya.

The challenges faced by the 18 villages are numerous when it comes to development projects. According to B Sohtung, president of Synjuk Ki Rangbah Shnong from Block 2, the forest department from Assam govt would normally stop any kind of development work mentioning that the area is a forested land and no work can be done.

“Another challenge concerning farming activities since we cultivate wheat, ginger and broomsticks, so whenever we have to transport our produce there would be these ‘Mohaldars’ sent by the Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council (KAADC) and they would collect money from us. Farmers here end up paying them for per pick-up truck Rs 8,000, so this kind of harassment is faced by many of us living here in the border areas,” stated Sohtung.

All the local heads have appealed the Meghalaya government that all the villages falling under Raid Nongtung boundary should be under Meghalaya. They felt that if the ‘give and take policy’ is discussed then they will have to discuss which area belongs to which state.

It was also noticed that the roads leading to Jatalong were in a bad condition. The village had no proper network connectivity and the two schools in had the look of an abandoned site. It was also noticed that the nearest Meghalaya police outpost was only at Mawlasnai, which is quite a distance away from Jatalong given the bad road.

Taking a detour from Jatalong to a toll gate at Sabuda (Block II) inside Meghalaya territory, the roads inside Sabuda was in a good condition. Some of the residents had lamented that this is the strategy of the Assam government. What was surprising was an office of the Forest Beat Officer under the West Karbi Anglong (Assam) has already been setup.