By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has acknowledged the letter written by the Hill State Peoples’ Democratic Party (HSPDP) and Garo National Council (GNC) demanding separate states for Khasi-Jaintia and Garos.
“The letter is forwarded for action as appropriated,” a PMO communiqué said.
The HSPDP and GNC in its letter written to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh last month said that Khasi-Jaintia and Garo languages and customs are totally different from each other.
“Unless the State is bifurcated all initiatives of the Central Government to empower and provide special package for both ST and SC will come to naught,” HSPDP president Hoping Stone Lyngdoh has stated in the letter.
According to the HSPDP and the GNC, the State can be dissolved and bifurcated for Khasi-Jaintia and Garo people with similar provisions as was given to Nagaland and Mizoram.
“It is not possible to frame common laws for Khasi-Jaintia and Garo people related to land holdings and land reforms,” the letter mentioned.
The two political parties also claimed that they will respectively run the proposed two new states with their own resources as there are ample human, natural and mineral resources which could be harnessed for making the states self sufficient in terms of revenue generation.