SHILLONG:
All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) legislator from Umroi, George B Lyngdoh, on Wednesday sought the details of agreement between Meghalaya and Assam, which has been submitted to the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that he had broadly shared the details in the House recently.
“But the full details and the micro details are difficult to give because these are matters of finer details,” the chief minister said.
He said that the basic understanding the government had with Assam is that the reserve forest in Gizang and Malcapara will be in Assam.
“The issue of finer details here is it (demarcation) going to be the point from where the forest ends or does the Environment ministry require a buffer zone of 100 metres or 500 metres that needs to be maintained or a stream or a river,” Sangma said.
According to the chief minister, if he was to give a statement that the demarcation would be from the Reserve Forest, then it will be like misleading the House.
“That is why the Survey of India, governments of Assam and Meghalaya and the Centre have to go into the finer details of whether it will be from the border of the last tree of the Reserve Forest or will it be on the buffer zone,” Sangma said.
He said that details will be shared at an appropriate time when these are finalised.
Taking up the matter during the Question Hour, Lyngdoh said that there are two details, one of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya and the other detail is that of physical inspection by the regional committees on the ground.
Lyngdoh said that physical details on the ground can be awaited, but the details of the MoU, which have not yet been made public.
Sangma informed the House that a statement was made in the House based on the MoU which was the broad outcome.
The chief minister said that there is strong possibility while the MoU is signed the Forest department or any other authority will come forward and say that this cannot be done and the parties do not know yet those details.