SHILLONG: Opposition leader Mukul Sangma on Tuesday criticised the Centre for failing to start 20 of the 22 border haats in Meghalaya.
Participating in a motion moved by MLAs SK Sunn and PT Sawkmie on unemployment and the need to find a solution to it during the Budget session on Tuesday, Sangma said there was a proposal to start as many as 22 border haats in the state but only two have been set up.
The two border haats (markets) which are operational are in Kalaichar and Balat.
The former chief minister asked the state government to aggressively take up the matter with the Centre.
Meghalaya shares a 443-km long international border with Bangladesh. These areas were hub of trade and commerce in the pre-partition era and also after it for a while.
People from the hills of Meghalaya and the plains of Bangladesh had carried out barter trade dealing primarily in agricultural products in these border haats, some of which date back to the Mughal era.
But after Bangladesh attained freedom from West Pakistan in 1971, these haats were closed and the economically well-off people in these areas lost their means of livelihood.
Sangma said the BJP, after coming to power at the Centre in 2014, withdrew assistance to the special category northeastern states for several schemes.
“I am sure they are not going to revive and it is happening more with BJP-ruled states,” he said while castigating the Centre for not releasing the salary of SSA teachers in Meghalaya.
On law and order, Sangma said the state was “infected by the disease of militancy and now it has been cured”.
“This is the best time and opportunity for taking the state forward and further increase the growth momentum,” he added.
