Several political parties in Assam have opposed the proposed plan of Assam and Meghalaya governments to end the five-decades-old border dispute between them with a give and take formula by swapping border areas.
On Thursday, chief ministers of both states had met union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi and apprised him of the recommendations of regional committees of the two states which suggested division of 6 of the 12 disputed areas.
As per the recommendations, of the total 36.79 sq km disputed land in six areas-Gizang, Tarabari, Boklapara, Khanapara-Pilingkata and Ratacherra--Assam would get 18.51 sq km while Meghalaya would get 18.28 sq km. The recommendations were approved by cabinets of both states.
“Have Assam or Assamese people encroached on land of other neighbouring states? No, we haven’t. But now in the name of resolving border dispute, Assam government has agreed to give our land, which was encroached by Meghalaya,” Raijor Dal president and Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi said in a statement.
“Imagine, I encroach a 10 ‘bigha’ plot that belongs to you. Soon a controversy erupts over it. To sort it, discussions are held and I was asked about my view. I said that I want the plot I encroached. This was agreed by both sides. This is the formula arrived at to solve the Assam-Meghalaya border row,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Imagine, I encroach a 10 ‘bigha’ plot that belongs to you. Soon a controversy erupts over it. To sort it, discussions are held and I was asked about my view. I said that I want the plot I encroached. This was agreed by both sides. This is the formula arrived at to solve the Assam-Meghalaya border row,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Gogoi said that if the same measure is used to sort out the other 6 disputed areas with Meghalaya, Assam would lose more land. And by that same yardstick, Assam would lose a total of 690 sq km of its land to sort out border disputes with Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
“The land swap deal done by Assam government by overlooking views of residents in those disputed areas has revealed that Assam would stand to lose. While we will give away our land to Meghalaya, the neighbouring state would hand us Assam’s land, which it had earlier encroached upon,” president of Assam Jatiya Parishad, Lurinjyoti Gogoi, said in a statement.
“As per information tabled by the Assam government in the assembly on several occasions, Meghalaya had encroached nearly 35 sq km of our territory. As per the new formula agreed by both states, Assam and Meghalaya would each get half of that land. Is this an agreement or surrender?” he questioned.
Both regional parties, Raijor Dal and Assam Jatiya Parishad blamed Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of failing to listen to views of Assam’s populace and also of overlooking constitutional provisions while agreeing to give away the state’s land to Meghalaya.
Earlier, Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the two biggest opposition parties in the state assembly, had also opposed the land swap deal with Meghalaya and urged the BJP-led Assam government to discuss the issue in detail in the assembly before taking any hasty decision.