SHILLONG: Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma has defended the delay in holding CM and CS level meeting between Assam and Meghalaya to hold discussions over the vexed boundary dispute even as instances of skirmish along the dispute state boundary continue to be reported.
The long-standing border dispute between Assam and Meghalaya raised its ugly head once again at Langpih area on Thursday when the Assam police allegedly stopped the employees of a company working for electrification in a nearby village and arrested two persons which led to a clash between the villagers and the Assam police personnel
However, Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma on Friday said that the dispute had been there since the inception of the State and it was not easy to find the right time and place to held such meeting.
“There is a need to hold a preliminary discussions before holding discussions on the boundary disputes at the top level. But I can assure that we are discussing at different levels,” he said even as he added that if the meeting took place at the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary level, it should come out with some concrete points.
When asked about the documents which were submitted by Meghalaya Government long time back to substantiate its claims on the 12 areas of differences, Sangma said that the past governments were not able to resolve this issue since there are claims and counter claim from the sides which also have documents.
“We need to find a solution also to this. But at the same time we need to ensure peace and harmony in the border areas and we need to take the people into confidence besides ensuring that development is not affected” he added
Giving an account of the incident which happened on Thursday, Sangma said that as per the report passed on to him, work was being done for the electrification and while the lines were being pulled a lot of people came out and started objecting.
When these objections/ arguments were taking place pelting of stones took place. The Assam police who was there and when they saw the incident of pelting of stones, they had resorted to lathi charge, the Chief Minister added
The Chief Minister further informed that the Government immediately took up the issue with the Assam counterpart, adding that he DGP office and the Additional Superintendent of Police of West Khasi Hills have raised the issue with the Assam and it was assured that the two people would be released.
“We are trying to ensure that the status quo is maintained so that the sentiments of the people is not hurt. That is where the challenge lies. It is a difficult task sometime since this kind of incident takes place very quickly. The response do take sometime to implement. From our side we are maintaining a very strong stand with our counterpart with Assam to ensure that this kind of incident does not place in the future,” he added.
When asked if the project of electrification would continue in the area, he said the work would not begin immediately and Government would wait for the situation to normalise first and then move forward.
He also said that the Government have asked the Deputy Commissioners and Superintendent of Police of West Khasi HIlls to speak with their counterpart.
When asked about his thought on the “Give and take Policy” as proposed by the former Chief Minister Capt WA Sangma to resolve this long pending issue, he said that they are yet to discuss on this issue.