By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Opposition Leader Conrad K Sangma has come down heavily on Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh for making an ‘irresponsible’ statement relating to the inter-State boundary dispute with Assam.
Moving a call attention motion in the Assembly on Thursday regarding a news report appeared in a section of vernacular media under the caption Ym lah iapynbeit pud mynta la jan election (The Government cannot pursue the long pending inter-State boundary dispute with the Election very close), Opposition Leader said that it is really strange that the Home Minister is blaming the Assembly election for the Government’s inability to carry forward the dialogue for resolving the long pending dispute.
Citing election as an excuse for the inability of the Government to pursue the matter is totally unacceptable, Conrad said, while adding that the fact is that every year there is an election.
“Last year there was an election in Assam. Next year we would be having elections in the State if the Government does not decide to pre-pone the election. In 2014, there would be Lok Sabha elections. If we continue to give excuses on account of election then when would we make a serious effort to resolve this long pending issue,” Sangma questioned.
The Opposition Leader said, “Despite the election, there are officials who are running the Government. The officials can always take forward the talks with Assam Government to resolve the boundary dispute.”
While admitting that the inter-State boundary issue cannot be resolved overnight, he said that the Government should at least make a serious commitment without giving lame excuses.
Meanwhile, Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh, in his reply, denied having made any such statement.
“During my meeting with one of the NGOs, I have told them that it would take some time for the Government to resolve this issue. I had also briefed the NGOs on the various steps taken by the Government in the past few months to see that this long pending dispute is resolved once and for all,” he said.
Lyngdoh pinned the blame on the editor of the vernacular daily for extracting only those parts ‘which were misinterpreted by the NGOs while speaking to media persons’.
Earlier, Paul Lyngdoh (UDP) had raise serious concern over continuous atrocities and harassment meted out to the local indigenous population residing along the inter-State border especially in Langpih.
“We have been reading in the media reports how our people are being harassed and assaulted by the Assam police. Due to this action, there is fear psychosis among the local people who reside in the border areas,” Lyngdoh said.
While stating that it high time that the government takes steps to remove the tag of being called a ‘soft state’, the UDP leader said that the State would have to show its aggression to stop the atrocities and harassment by the Assam police.
“We cannot be mere spectators to the injustice being meted out against our people,” Lyngdoh said.
In reply, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said that the Government is aware about the atrocities and harassment against the local people.
“We in fact had taken up the matter with former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram as soon as we received reports on aggression by the Kamrup district administration against the local people,” Dr Sangma said.
He, however, said that the situation at present has drastically improved with the frequent engagement of the governments of the two states to ease down the tension.
“After the Chief Secretaries level meeting, they was an agreement that the field level officers would jointly visit the area to instill confidence among the local population residing along the border,” the Chief Minister added.