SHILLONG: The Assam and the Meghalaya Governments have agreed to have an institutionalized mechanism at two different levels to tackle the age-old problems prevailing along the inter-State border.
The decision to have an institutionalized mechanism was taken in a meeting between senior officials of the two neighbouring States held at Dispur, Assam, on Friday.
A senior government official on Saturday informed that at the first level there would be officers consisting of Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, District Forest Officers and District Council representatives of the concerned districts who will meet regularly every quarter irrespective of any incident occurring or not and would duly submit a report to their respective state governments.
The second level would comprise police officer of the rank of SDPO or DSP or senior inspector, he said. This group would be headed by a magistrate who will be designated as border magistrate.
“The officers at the second level are expected to meet every month as well as in the event of any incident taking place,” the official informed, adding that “this is a positive step and since such a decision had never been taken earlier it is expected that these steps will facilitate in mitigating frequent problems that arise in the border areas.”
Meghalaya officials raised the issue of recent extortion attempts by the KLPT in Umtlih village, Ri Bhoi District and the threat to the life of the headman. “On this, both states agreed to initiate joint patrolling to thwart off such designs and the respective SPs have been directed to implement this decision with immediate effect,” the official stated.
It was also decided at the meeting that the states’ nodal officers would take up with their respective state governments to ensure that people’s ) rights to basic amenities such as water and power were not hindered by the ongoing border differences.
Besides Block I and II, Meghalaya also staked claim to 12 other areas of dispute to which both sides agreed that both the state governments must exhibit a greater sense of seriousness to resolve the matter in the near future.
The delegations consisted of senior officials, DCs and SPs of concerned districts and led by the home and political commissioners of both states – J Lyngdoh from Meghalaya and GD Tripathi from Assam – as nodal officers.
