NEW DELHI:
The Governments of Assam and Meghalaya are discussing at various levels to arrive at an amicable solution to the decades-old border dispute, said Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Parliament, on March 23.
“As a result of these discussions, the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya have agreed on a permanent settlement to the issue with respect to six out of twelve disputed areas between them,” said Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
He said that the Union government’s stand on the issue has always been that of cooperation between state governments with the Centre acting as a facilitator to resolve the issue.
“The approach of the central government has consistently been that inter-state boundary issues can be resolved only with the cooperation of the state governments concerned and that the Centre acts as a facilitator for amicable settlement of the boundary issue in the spirit of mutual cooperation and understanding,” Rai said.
Notably, Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma and his Assam counterpart, Himanta Biswa Sarma will meet Home Minister Amit Shah on March 27 to get a final nod from the Centre on the vexed issue between the two states.
Earlier in January, Sangma and Sarma met Home Minister Shah in New Delhi, and submitted their resolution to resolve the border dispute in six areas of difference between the two states in the first phase.
Meanwhile, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader AL Hek, on Wednesday, said that even if the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) submitted by Meghalaya and Assam is finalised, his conscience won’t accept it.
He said that the regional committees formed to file reports on the six areas of disputes between the states needs to be reconvened so that residents of the border areas can have their say.
The Pynthorumkhrah legislator said that the government has to take complete responsibility so that the border residents are not deprived of their rights.