SHILLONG, Jan 28: State revenue and disaster management minister Kyrmen Shylla on Thursday said that both Meghalaya and Assam must take care to ascertain what the border residents want while trying to find out a solution to the decades-old interstate boundary dispute.
“We want this to be solved once and for all. We don’t know whether there will be an increase from the 12 areas of difference to many more areas. If it can be done it will be a great help for our state,” Shylla said.
Asked whether the state was fully equipped with papers for the claim, the minister said he could not say anything as of now “as the issue is age old and that it is only in the fitness of things that both the states come together to find a lasting solution.”
“The solution depends on the people who live in the border areas and we will have to take them into consideration otherwise it will be a problem,” he said.
Union home minister Amit Shah during his recent visit to the state had asked the chief ministers of the Northeastern states to resolve their inter-state boundary disputes amicably through bilateral talks between the concerned state governments.
And while there were many takers of his suggestion, questions were also raised by a few on the effectiveness of it on the ground as umpteen rounds of talks at various levels between the states have yielded no concrete result till date. Status quo has often been violated giving rise to umpteen border skirmishes.
The intervention of the Centre is felt wanting even as many regional parties of the state opine that until and unless the Centre intervenes into the matter, a solution to the vexed problem would remain out of sight.