SHILLONG: Fed up with the constant promise of politicians during elections to resolve the lingering border dispute, an individual, D.K. Iawphniaw has filed an RTI to find out the status of inter-state boundary dispute between Meghalaya and Assam.
Addressing the Press on Monday he said, “I have been hearing of politicians who get vocal about resolving the border dispute with Assam during the election campaigns. But they go deep in slumber post the poll campaigns and take no remedial steps.”
He added there had been numerous talks on inter-state boundary dispute but the absence of documents by the state of Meghalaya is a major drawback.
He criticized the erstwhile Hill State Movement leaders asserting that the state was bifurcated from Assam without any proper documents of land boundary.
As per the RTI, he did not get the reply to the query on exact area of Meghalaya during bifurcation with authentic documents available with the three Autonomous District Councils and the state government.
He added the department also could not provide the information on the names of the area, (District wise) which were forcibly encroached and occupied by the Assam government since inception of Meghalaya state.
As per the RTI reply, he said since 1972 till date, the number of chief ministerial meetings held has been 20, chief secretary level meeting seven and nodal officers level meeting three.
He said the Revenue and Disaster Management Department had informed they did not get the reply from Political Department.
Iawphniaw said the RTI at the Revenue and Disaster Management department was filed on September and October but the queries provided by them were not sufficient and so he again filed another RTI in November.
He also filed an RTI about job reservation policy in the state. He said no preference was given by the District Selection Committee (DSC) to candidates from the respective districts.