E-Paper
Meghalaya govt signed border accord as per Assam’s dictate: TMC leader
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart, Conrad Sangma, signed an agreement in March to resolve the five-decade-old dispute
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mukul Sangma has accused the Meghalaya government of signing the border agreement with Assam as per “the dictate” of the neighbouring state.
He claimed Meghalaya’s people have not accepted the accord. “Anything that is not acceptable to the people is not acceptable to us,” he said on Tuesday as he filed his nomination for the February 27 assembly polls.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart, Conrad Sangma, signed an agreement in March to resolve the five-decade-old dispute in six of the 12 contested areas along their 884.9 km-long border between the two states.
The two states formed three panels each in August 2021 to discuss the border dispute. Sarma and Sangma submitted a draft resolution to Shah on January 31 for the Union home ministry’s consideration after two rounds of talks between the states.
The two sides proposed Assam will keep 18.51 square km and give 18.28 square km to Meghalaya. The agreement regarding 36 villages was reached in the first phase of settlement.
