19 CM-level meets since 1971 failed to solve border issue
SHILLONG: HSPDP legislator K.P Pangniang on Tuesday said the map of Meghalaya should include the 12 areas of difference, a contentious issue that the State is trying to solve with Assam.
Speaking in the Assembly while moving a motion on border dispute, the Rambrai MLA asked the government to use the 1976 map of Meghalaya that has all the areas marked instead of the map of 2009 published by Survey of India that did not include 12 areas of difference.
In reply, the Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Revenue and Disaster Management, R.C Laloo, said boundaries for the disputed areas are not marked in 2009 and hence cannot be shown on the map.
“The map of Meghalaya from Survey of India, Department of Science and Technology, showed seven districts of Meghalaya and the particular map did not indicate any of the disputed areas”, he said.
The State government later objected to this and sought a clarification from Survey of India asking why Langpih and other disputed areas are not shown on the map.
Later, Survey of India gave a caveat in the map stating that “the interstate boundary with Assam is yet to be verified.
Laloo said following reports that the Geological Survey of India reportedly printed the map in 2009, the State government took up the matter.
The Geological Survey of India then clarified that they did not publish any map of Meghalaya in 2009. “We are discussing something that does not exist,” the deputy chief minister said.
Laloo said chief ministers of Meghalaya and Assam met on 19 occasions between 1971 and 2010 to resolve the boundary dispute. There were nine meetings at the chief secretary level between 1992 and 2012 and thrice the nodal officers of both states met between 2012 and 2014 but no solution to the dispute could be reached at.
Meghalaya submitted the list of 12 areas of difference during a chief secretary level meeting in 1992. Laloo said the State government had since then stood its ground on the issue and initiated interstate border area development programmes in 2011-12 for places located within 5 km of the boundary.
The government has, so far, spent Rs 36 crore on border area development, Laloo informed.
“These investments were made in areas of differences and we hope someday these areas will revert to Meghalaya,” he said.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition Donkupar Roy, while participating in the discussion, said the areas of difference along the interstate border on the map should be marked in different colours like the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir marked on the map of India.
Mawkyrwat MLA Rowell Lyngdoh said the Meghalaya government should bring back those villages in Blocks I and II, which were transferred to Assam for creation of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills districts of Assam.