Boundary dispute resolution with Meghalaya
From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: With the government in neighbouring Meghalaya showing its impatience over the delay in resolution of the inter-state boundary disputes with Assam after the chief secretaries of both the States failed to hammer out a solution at their level, the Assam government led by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is all set to bring up the matter once again at the chief ministers’ level.
An official source informed that Gogoi reviewed the status of the on-going process to resolve boundary disputes with Meghalaya in a high-level meeting held on Friday evening in presence of Assam’s Border Areas Development Minister (independent charge) Siddique Ahmed, Chief Secretary NK Das and other concerned senior bureaucrats in the State.
It was gleaned that Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma had written a letter to his Assam counterpart in December last year suggesting for discussions at chief ministers’ level to resolve the boundary tangle in an expeditious way given that efforts at the chief secretaries’ level had failed to deliver the desired result.
It may be mentioned that in August, 2011, the Meghalaya government had written a letter to its Assam counterpart claiming about 2729.05 square kilometre area from 12 places in Kamrup (metropolitan
district), Kamrup district and Karbi Anglong as belonging to Meghalaya. However, Assam government raised objection to it in subsequent communication to Meghalaya government. In the meantime, the Langpih firing incident occurred and subsequently the chief secretaries of both the states were entrusted to hold discussions to resolve the boundary tangle between the two states once and for all.
Meanwhile, the Central government appointed the border secretaries of both the states as nodal officers to resolve the dispute and the nodal officers used to meet occasionally. The last such meeting was held on October 31 last year.
Meghalaya wants constitution of a boundary commission under Central intervention to resolve the border dispute with Assam, but Assam government objects to it.
Meghalaya wants demarcation of the inter-state boundary on the basis of historical background while Assam wants a constitutional boundary on the basis of the 1972 scenario when the state of Meghalaya was created out of then undivided Assam.
The border dispute between the two states figured prominently in the ongoing Budget Session of the ninth Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.