SHILLONG:
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Ampareen Lyngdoh, on January 20, lauded the approach of the chief ministers of Meghalaya and Assam in solving the long-pending boundary dispute between the two states.
“It is a good thing that the chief ministers have adopted a new approach towards solving the inter-state border issue,” said Lyngdoh, on the eve of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Meghalaya’s Statehood.
Stating that it is a good thing that the Centre listened to the recommendations of the two chief ministers, Lyngdoh said that the regional committees have done a justified job and the best way out would be to visit ground zero to verify the facts, locations and the ethnicity of the people residing along the inter-state borders.
Lyngdoh added, “If you ask me why the border dispute could not be resolved positively earlier, I would say that today the approach to governance has changed.”
She cited that the regional committees, which are constituted by MDCs and MLAs, itself indicates that they are the right people to evaluate the on-ground situation. Notably, Congress has two MLAs as members in the West Khasi Hills and Ri Bhoi regional committees. However, it has no representation in the East Jaintia Hills regional committee.
“…it is neither the Survey of India nor an officer sitting in an office in Delhi that will decide our boundaries. This alternative approach has been a good one. We have to give it to the state governments for coming up with this ingenious idea,” she said.
Lyngdoh said the question now was whether the two chief ministers would abide by the recommendations of the regional committees, which they have kept as a “secret” till now.
“We know we are privy to the information submitted by the regional committees, even if the documents are not made public… I am sure that if they go by the recommendations made by the regional committees, the state of Meghalaya will gain in the long run,” she said.