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Meghalaya seeks transfer of land from Assam, next meeting on border talks in July
Tynsong said as far as Ri Bhoi district is concerned, there are four sectors – Borduar, Nongwah-Mawtamur, Deshdoomreah, Block-II – where the two regional committees need to sit down and discuss and then take a final call on whatever needs to be done to resolve the contentious issue that has been lying unsolved for over half a century
In another effort to resolve the Assam-Meghalaya border dispute, the Ri-Bhoi regional committee chaired by Meghalaya deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong held a panel meeting on Friday to discuss the plans for the next phase of border talks with Assam.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Tynsong announced that the regional committees of both states would have a joint meeting in July.
To deliberate on the inter-state boundary differences regarding the four sectors under Meghalaya’s Ri Bhoi district, a joint meeting of the regional committees from Meghalaya and Assam will be held next month, Tynsong said as he maintained that the government is committed to seeking transferring of Block I and Block II to Meghalaya.
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“We will fix a joint meeting with the regional committee of our Assam counterpart. We will also conduct a joint inspection and assessment of the remaining areas of differences and then take a final call on this issue,” he said.
Tynsong said as far as Ri Bhoi district is concerned, there are four sectors – Borduar, Nongwah-Mawtamur, Deshdoomreah, Block-II – where the two regional committees need to sit down and discuss and then take a final call on whatever needs to be done to resolve the contentious issue that has been lying unsolved for over half a century.
Stating that the same criteria will be adopted while finding a solution to resolve the dispute, the Dy CM said, “People’s willingness is also part of the guidelines of this committee. Therefore, guidelines have been in place since the last phase so even in this second phase the same criteria are adopted.”
Affirming that the government has all documents to substantiate its claim over the four sectors Tynsong said, “That is why we will sit down with our counterpart and discuss across the table, and we will go down to the village level and take a final decision.”
On the demand to retransfer all villages under Block II back to Meghalaya, the deputy chief minister said on the matter as far as Block I and Block II are concerned, it is a question of retransferring, but some people have misunderstood this.
Further, Tynsong said that after 50 years of statehood, it is only the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, which has taken a firm decision to resolve the long pending boundary dispute with Assam.
He reminded that an MoU was also signed with Assam resolving six areas of difference under the first phase of border talks.
The two northeastern states signed an agreement to resolve their 50-year-old border dispute in six of the 12 locations last year.
On the opposition against the MoU, Tynsong said, “The first phase we have done it, yes, a large portion of Meghalaya’s population would agree while some would not. But whatever I am telling you, we are doing this for the best interest of the next generation of our state so we will go ahead no matter what, we will go ahead with it.”
The last meeting on the border dispute was held in May between Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K Sangma in Guwahati.
