SHILLONG:
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, on June 9, said that the second phase of border talks to resolve the remaining six areas of differences between Assam and Meghalaya will be an extensive exercise, wherein a lot of homework and research has to be done.
“We have not abandoned (the border talks) but there are lots of issues and concerns going on and a lot of homework has to be done again as for the past 50 years no initiative was taken to resolve the issue,” Sangma said.
The chief minister, however, refrained from mentioning when the second phase of the talk will commence. “For meeting’s sake we can always meet. It is not a problem at all, but before we meet it is important that we do our planning and homework properly; prepare the documents – that is what we are doing from our side now,” he added.
Stating that the government is equally concern about the issue, Sangma said, “The preparation requires a lot of documentation and mapping. We cannot just look at the old maps because in the last report, which was submitted in 2011, there were a lot of concerns. So, lots of preparation is going on and it is not very simple.”