Shillong, Mar 17: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday assured to take up the concerns expressed by stakeholders during the upcoming meeting with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), to finalize the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Assam government for resolving the 6 of the 12 areas of difference.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma said that he again got a call from the office of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah confirming that the meeting will be held on March 27, at 4.30 pm.
“Once we discuss then only we will come to know. Let us hope for the best,” he said.
On the concerns expressed by traditional heads, the chief minister said, “Whatever concerns that are there we will try to take it up again on March 27. But as I said we have moved as close to a perfect kind of scenario to the best scenario so we will see what happens on March 27.”
He said the government had discussed with the traditional heads multiple times and shared the information with them as was done with the political parties, NGOs etc.
“It is not something which is being hidden from them in any way, they knew the details for a very long time back,” he said.
The CM also informed that he had received a letter from the NPP MDCs in KHADC led by Gigur Myrthong expressing their full support to the government on the issue.
“Therefore there will be concerns and yes everybody has a right to express their concern and as I said we have done our best in the whole process and we feel that we need to move forward…,” he said.
On the demand of the Malchapara residents for inclusion of their villages under Meghalaya, the chief minister said the majority of the public during the hearing on video recording had said that they wanted to be in Assam.
“Yes, there are concerns but proof is there on record that is why we move forward. Nonetheless since the concerns were raised I can once again discuss this matter but it is difficult to say right now what will happen,” he said.