Shillong:
Cabinet Minister and chairman of the West Khasi Hills Regional Committee, Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar has said that, now that the MoU is signed between the states to resolve the decades-old border issue, it is pointless to agitate.
“We have gone to the villages and we held hearings. So if people by mistake that time they said that they want to be with Assam and now they are saying that they want to be in Meghalaya, it is difficult to do anything now. It may be too late,” Tongkhar said.
Tongkhar said that the settlement of the boundary dispute between the two states in the six areas of differences in the first phase was mainly due to the willingness of the people living in those villages.
“We have applied the same yardstick to almost all the villages,” he said.
Tongkhar also wondered why people were saying that they were not consulted when members of the Regional Committee visited those areas.
He said that he saw the participation of the villagers, who came out and expressed themselves.
Tongkhar said that a situation was created where people were not scared to speak the truth.
“Situation was created, people should have the courage to speak whatever they felt like and they expressed themselves,” he said.
He said that they have been able to settle the boundary dispute based on the willingness of the people staying in those villages.
On the recent statement of HSPDP president KP Pangniang that the 12 disputed places do not fall in Meghalaya, Tongkhar said that since these are areas of differences and to lay claim to them by either Meghalaya or Assam, then it would mean these areas are not disputed.
“As long as we say areas of differences it means these are disputed places and we cannot clearly claim that these are in Meghalaya or in Assam and therefore we have to settle,” Tongkhar said.
He said that after the signing of the MoU on the first six areas of differences, now one can clearly claim which area is in Meghalaya and which in Assam.