SHILLONG: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong has expressed hope that talks between the chief ministers of Meghalaya and Assam would be held soon to resolve the inter-state border dispute.
“Our focus is on the first meeting with the chief minister of Assam and once that is held you will know what is to be done next,” the minister told reporters recently.
Tynsong had said last year that a meeting between the two chief ministers would be held after May 23 (last year).
After several months dragged by, he had changed the possible meeting time to either end of November or December last year. “Now, we are looking to have an appointment for the meeting at the earliest”, he said.
The last time that chief ministers of the two states had met was in 2017.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and then state Chief Minister Mukul Sangma had met in Guwahati and decided to resolve the boundary dispute through dialogue taking into account views of both sides.
The decades-old inter-state boundary row has found prominent mention in manifestos of political parties in the state every time elections came around; each would claim to be in possession of the magic wand. But little has moved beyond those pages of the booklets and some lip service.
The opposition Congress in the state had recently stressed on the urgency to resolve the boundary row saying disputed areas could be used as enclaves after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is implemented.
The issue comes to the fore every time there is a flare up between the two sides in these areas – and there have been many over the years – but fades away as normalcy returns.
There are twelve areas of difference between the two states and despite many a round of talks at the chief secretary level there has been no concrete headway and status quo has remained.
