SHILLONG: The state government needs the help of the Centre, its Assam counterpart and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council to retrieve Block 1 and Block II, which are part of the 12 areas of difference, KHADC chief HS Shylla said on Tuesday.
Moving a resolution on the issue on the first day of the KHADC’s winter session on Tuesday, Shylla said the interstate boundary dispute is a common problem for the three autonomous district councils in Meghalaya.
Terming the 1951 notification to include the two blocks in the then Mikir Hills Autonomous District Council as “illegal”, Shylla said the historic-legal position supports the return of the areas known as Block I and Block II to the state of Meghalaya as well as the KHADC and the JHADC.
Stating that injustice was committed against the Khasi-Jaintia tribe, Shylla insisted that the “wrong” should be rectified.
“The KHADC was part of the erstwhile ‘United Khasi-Jaintia District Council’, which was formed as part of the Province of Assam within the dominion of India by the process of the framing and creation of the Constitution of India and not by any Instrument of Merger,” Shylla said, adding, “In an act that can be described as arbitrary, oppressive and unconstitutional, the areas known as Block I and Block II of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills District were forcibly excluded and tagged with the then Mikir Hills Autonomous District Council.”
There areas were tagged with the then Mikir autonomous body by the notification dated April 13, 1951.
He added this act is “totally illegal” and arbitrary exercise of powers under Para I of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India.
“This action has infringed on and violated the sacred rights of the Khasi-Jaintia tribe to tribal land, identity and the protection of the provisions of the Constitution of India as guaranteed,” he said.
Shylla said the provisions of the Sixth Schedule were misused to forcibly deprive the state of a substantial area of land.
With the constitutional aberration and illegality discovered and recognised, he said it is necessary that the Centre, the state, Assam and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council be urged to “rectify the historical act of oppression against the Khasi-Jaintia tribe by returning and restoring back Block I and Block II to Meghalaya and the Khasi Jaintia tribe as per the boundaries within the notification of April 13, 1951.
He maintained that the absolute ownership of the Khasi Jaintia tribal land is unalienable from the identity of the Khasi-Jaintia tribe.
“Taking away of our land constitutes an infringement which violates and destroys our constitutional relationship with the Union of India,” Shylla said.
According to him, the use of any legal mechanism to enable violations of our rights is abhorrent, unconstitutional and demeaning, reducing our status within the federal structure of India.
Not mere zeal
Congress MLA Kimfa Marbaniang who is an MLA from Rambrai-Jyrngam, a constituency that also had its share of Meghalaya-Assam boundary dispute, recalled the time when four lives were lost at Langpih due to border tensions.
According to him, the resolution should not excite the people but solutions to border dispute should be the prime focus as the people are harassed.
“The resolution should please the people living in the disputed borders,” Marbaniang said.
