From Our Correspondent
NONGSTOIN: Over 500 people responded to a call by HSPDP supremo Hopingstone Lyngdoh last week, as they participated in the meeting at the market here in Nongstoin to hear and discuss the problems of the border people.
The meeting was attended by Rambrai MDC KP Pangniang, Nongstoin MDC LG Nongsiej, Mawkyrwat MDC Enbin K Raswai, Dr Fenela Nonglait Lyngdoh, ticket aspirant from Mawthadraishan, Arphul Kharbani, president HANM West Khasi Hills, Kodious Thongni, president HANM Western Ri-Bhoi and Hindro Samakha, headman of Hima Raid Mynsaw Langpih.
Hopingstone told the gathering that in his 40-year tenure as representative of the people, he had written numerous reports about the problems faced by the people of the borders of the State. He also said that he had asked various chief ministers of the State to solve the border dispute with Assam but was disappointed time and again.
He also said that he was the lone MLA from among the 60 legislators in the State to bring up the border problems in the Assembly.
He felt that in the near future, more legislators from regional parties would take up the issue. He pointed out that the Survey of India map of 2009 had committed a blunder by excluding as many as 150 villages from Meghalaya and projecting them as Assam territory.
He demanded that the map be scrapped immediately and a new map published with all the 150 villages included in Meghalaya.
Dr Nonglait, an aspirant for the 2013 polls from Mawthadraishan, said the border people should take up the onus of solving the problems by themselves since the State Government was not too keen on solving them.
She told the people that she had joined politics with a view to serve the people on the lines of the manifesto of the HSPDP that aims at serving the people of the State.
Raged at the mistake made by the Survey of India in their map, Dr Fenela tore the map in front of the gathering. She said the flaw was deliberately made to instill fear and confusion among the people living in the border areas.
Kodious Thongni said the border problems were not confined to Langpih alone but to all the borders that shared its area with Assam. He said that in all these places the land of Meghalaya was snatched by the people of Assam and those coming from Nepal.
He informed that in Jirang, 16 villages had been forcefully occupied by people from Assam. He informed that he led the border issue in Jirang and had even been arrested earlier this year and had spent 28 days in jail in Assam.
He also informed the gathering that the villagers of the 16 villages that were occupied by Assam had EPIC that was issued by the Government of Meghalaya.
The HANM leader asked the Meghalaya Government to clarify its stand on these villages before the 2013 polls. He threatened that if they failed to do so the HANM would boycott the polls and also prevent the polling stations from conducting the election.