Shillong, Mar 9: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said the government, at this point, cannot disclose all the details about the border agreement signed with Assam to resolve 6 of the 12 areas of dispute under phase 1.
He informed the Assembly that the government is awaiting further discussion with the Ministry of Home Affairs on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Meghalaya and Assam.
“The details of this dialogue will be shared at an appropriate time,” Sangma assured while replying to a query raised by suspended Congress MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh in the Assembly.
A joint Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya on January 29 which has been submitted to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 31, for examination and consideration of the MHA.
Sangma also informed that there will be a final agreement to be signed by the two states when AITC MLA from Umroi George B Lyngdoh demanded the MoU to be made public.
The Chief Minister said he has decided to refrain from giving micro details of the MoU pending the signing of the final agreement.
Citing the example of Gizang Reserve Forest area, Sangma said the issue here is that the dialogue they had was that reserve forest will be in Assam and Malchapara village will be in Assam.
“Issue here of finer details is, is it going to be from the point where the forest ends or does the environment ministry require a buffer zone of 500 metres that needs to be maintained. If I give a statement that it will be from this forest reserve then I am misleading the House,” he said, adding that until and unless Survey of India, Governments of Assam and Meghalaya, Government of India don’t go into the finer details of whether it will be from border of the last tree of the reserve forest, this could be a matter of acres that they are talking about.
He, therefore, maintained that “(I)Would refrain from giving a statement that might not stand correct after the final meeting takes place and to avoid misleading the House and the public we have restrained ourselves from giving to many micro details till it is finalised.”
