SHILLONG:
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has ruled out revisiting the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Meghalaya and Assam government to resolve the boundary issue in six areas of difference.
Replying during the question hour on September 14, Sangma said the agreement has been reached based on the documents and maps submitted by Meghalaya government in 2011. He said it would not be acceptable to the Assam government if any changes are brought to the documents already submitted.
The Chief Minister added that there could be negotiations held in some areas, but that does not guarantee that the Assam government would agree after the signing of the MOU.
Nonetheless, he said that the state government would still try and do its best to hold discussion in specific areas after members from the opposition insisted.
However, opposition chief whip George B. Lyngdoh said that clause 9 of the MoU reads “it was decided that any other areas/villages situated outside the areas of difference shown in the maps submitted by Meghalaya in 2011 will not be considered.”
Lyngdoh said that with this clause it is understood that there are areas outside the areas of differences that have been claimed by Meghalaya in 2011.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator said that as per the clause the government of Meghalaya agreed not to discuss on those areas that lie outside the areas of differences but to stick to only those areas of differences and therefore the areas that even have been claimed by Meghalaya in 2011 are not part of the MoU.
Lyngdoh pointed out that during the course of the reply of the Chief Minister he has said that it was difficult to move away from the document that was submitted by Meghalaya in 2011 and that now in the MoU they have moved away from the documents that have been submitted by the state in 2011.
“So we are having contrasting replies one the MoU says they have moved away from the document of 2011 where they have said that areas that lie beyond the areas of differences will not be considered and in the House there is another reply that they will not move away from the documents of 2011,” the TMC legislator said.
In his reply the Chief Minister said that both are the same thing and asked if the member had read them carefully.
“The simple point is that there was a map submitted by the government of Meghalaya in 2011. What we decided in the MoU is that we can’t go outside that map,” Sangma said.
He said that Assam had already made a strong point that since Meghalaya had already demarcated the areas and discussion will be held on that basis only and any areas beyond that cannot be and that was stated in the MoU.
Earlier, replying to the question asked by Nongpoh legislator Marylborn Syiem, Sangma said, Meghalaya and Assam government has reached the second phase to resolve the remaining six areas of difference.
He added the process of survey for the purpose of demarcation of borders is underway on the agreement reached during the first phase of the talks and subsequent MoU signed.