By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: After taking things lying down for so many years, the Meghalaya Government has at last decided to be pro-active in the border dispute with Assam.
On several occasions Assam has alleged that Meghalaya is encroaching into its territory. Now the State Government claims that huge tracts of land currently under dispute with Assam actually belong to Meghalaya.
Taking to reporters here on Wednesday, Chief Secretary WMS Pariat said, “the State Government has claimed that around 2700 square kilometres of land falling under the areas of dispute belong to Meghalaya.”
He said a total of 1500 square kilometres are in Block I and Block II.
“These figures projected by the State Government might be higher since we do not have the exact figure about the places which are inhabited by Khasi-Pnar population,” Pariat said while adding that the State Government had made this claim in the documents submitted to the Assam Government.
Though Assam has not presented its claims officially before the Meghalaya government during the Chief Secretary -level meeting, but on several occasions it had alleged that Meghalaya is occupying 5,789.66 hectares of its territory affecting the five districts of Cachar (640.14 hectares), Kamrup (323.09 hectares), Kamrup (metro) (42.08 hectares), Goalpara (99.95 hectares) and Karbi Anglong (4,685 hectares).
Informing of his meeting with the Assam Chief Secretary PC Sharma at Dispur on Tuesday, Pariat said, “We only had a brief discussion on the documents and other supporting materials submitted by the State Government. We have agreed to have a Sector wise discussion on all the 12 Sectors which are areas of differences as identified by the Meghalaya Government”.
He said that the State Government has identified these 12 sectors on the basis of the documents and maps which the Government had collected after a long and exhaustive exercise.
Taking into account the documents which the State Government has submitted to the Assam Government, Pariat said that “We have definitely built a very strong case.”
“We are hopeful that we will be getting back some of our land which are currently under areas of dispute,” the Chief Secretary said.
When asked if there are possibilities of manipulation of the documents submitted by the State to Assam, he said that this cannot happen since the State Government also has the copy of the documents submitted to Assam Government.
“We need to understand it is Meghalaya which has been making the claims. The Assam Government would only study the documents submitted by the Meghalaya Government,” Pariat said, adding that he is sure the Assam Government would also have records and documents to contest the claims made by Meghalaya and that they would also make counter claims”.
When asked about the mind of the Assam Government, he said that the Assam Government has a very positive mindset of resolving this long pending issue.