Editor
Apropos to the ongoing so-called boundary settlement between Assam and Meghalaya is bereft of crucial details and most importantly ignoring the wishes, opinions of the larger population.
When India started carving out states in 1953, the States Reorganisation Commission said “territorial readjustments between (states) should not assume the form of disputes between alien powers”. Let us understand that the “demarcation” of land boundaries in the early 1950s was not based on the prevailing factors at that time but on the basis of majority language spoken. Some were also taken on the basis of old maps taken from the British legacy and redrawn without understanding the problem of land holding system prevalent in the North East, particularly Meghalaya. A state was formed on the ground of the language spoken, cultural identity, customary traditions and other underlying interests.
The reason for the present imbroglio is that most states in the region were carved out of Assam without undertaking an independent study before arriving at crucial decisions. Whatever statutes have been signed in Delhi has to be out in the open for a public consensus.
Dominic Stadlin Wankhar
Shillong