SHILLONG: Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma on Wednesday blamed the setting up of a committee as insisted by the UDP to resolve the boundary dispute with Assam as one of the reasons for the delay in settling the dispute.
Referring to the inter-state boundary, Dr Sangma said that it is only during his time that the documentation process was completed.
“We are now engaging with Assam to resolve the issue,” he said.
Dr Sangma recalled that even as negotiations with Assam continued, he was advised from several quarters including the then coalition partner UDP to constitute a committee to resolve the boundary dispute with Assam.
“There was suggestion that we should urge upon the Government of India to constitute the Boundary Commission to resolve this issue. Because of their (UDP’s) persistence we agreed and asked Assam to recommend the same to the Government of India,” Dr Sangma said.
“No sooner did we decide to send the resolution to the Union Government, the Assam Government passed a resolution in the Assembly negating this proposal of our Assembly,” Dr Sangma said adding that recommendations for creating such committees are designed to lead to delays in achieving the objective of resolving the issue in a time-based manner.
‘Paul, Lanong infuse insecurity’
Dr Sangma also took senior UDP leaders Paul Lyngdoh and Bindo Mathew Lanong head on during a public meeting on Wednesday stating that Meghalaya no longer required their service as far as protecting the interests of the “jaitbynriew” (indigenous community) was concerned.
“The provisions in the Constitution are enough to protect us,” Dr Sangma said while campaigning for Congress candidate from Mawphlang-Diengiei, Lamphrang Blah at Mawngap.
Taking the attack on the regional parties further, the Chief Minister said that it is unfortunate to have leaders who infuse insecurity among people in the name of ‘jaitybynriew’.
“I have been following how the political leaders of our State continue to play politics and tell lies to get votes,” the Chief Minister said.
Dr Sangma also accused that the leaders of the regional parties do not want to resolve the issues of influx and inter-State boundary as they would not be left with any issues at the time of elections if these were taken care of.
Stating that the regional parties were never concerned about the boundary dispute and the issue of influx of illegal immigrants the chief minister accused the parties of never trying to resolve the twin issues once and for all.
“Similarly, we are concerned about the issue of influx and we have reflected during the Assembly election that this contentious issue would be addressed by the Government after the election with the mandate of the people,” the Chief Minister said.
He said that after the formation of the Government it was decided that an institutionalized and comprehensive mechanism involving the stakeholders will be initiated to address influx.
“We have taken this decision based on our understanding and ground reality that we already have enough laws and mechanism to ensure that outsiders cannot come and stay in our State,” the Chief Minister said, adding, “We already know that the various traditional intuitions have a mechanism in place to check who should stay in the respective localities.”
He, however, admitted that in areas like Nongalbibra and Khliehriat where coal mining is the mainstay, ‘outsiders’ have been staying and that was a matter of concern according to the Chief Minister.
He expressed confidence that strengthening the existing laws would regulate the problem.
The Chief Minister said that there was a suggestion to set up a committee to suggest all possible ways to come up with a comprehensive and instutionalised mechanism even on the issue of influx.
The Chief Minister recalled that former deputy chief minister Lanong was appointed as the chairman of the committee.
“After all the exercise, there was a recommendation which was in a small paragraph. The committee was supposed to recommend a mechanism which was institutionalized and comprehensive. But the recommendation talks about implementation of ILP based on the outdated 1873 Act,” the Chief Minister said.
He said that they have also suggested few changes which are not within the domain of the State legislature.
“If the relevant Act has to be amended, it has to be proposed by the State Government to be amended by Parliament,” Chief Minister said adding that this itself suggests that they would want this issue to linger on.
“We need only to strengthen the existing laws. We need to explore on the mechanism which can be through an enactment of law which can be done by State legislatures,” Dr Sangma said adding his government would not let this issue remain unresolved.
“I was also informed that the UDP leaders alleged that the party lost the election as EVMs were tampered with. I can understand the frustration of Bindo M Lanong because he was defeated so miserably,” the Chief Minister said.