SHILLONG, June 26: Health Minister and BJP legislator Alexander Laloo Hek appears to have stolen a march over Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma in taking up the interstate boundary row with Assam.
Hek called on Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati on Saturday and requested him to restart the CM-level talks to resolve the boundary dispute at the earliest.
Since coming to power in 2018, the National People’s Party-led MDA government has not held any talks at the CM level with its Assam counterpart despite frequent border skirmishes.
A plan to hold a meeting was postponed because of the Assembly elections in Assam although the Meghalaya government had made it clear it would hold talks with the new dispensation post-polls.
There has been no indication of such talks since the Himanta Biswa Sarma government took charge on May 10.
The last CM-level meeting between the two states took place in 2017-18 when Mukul Sangma and Sarbananda Sonowal were in charge in Meghalaya and Assam.
The Assam government had a few months ago started constructing a transit camp of the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) at Khanapara on a piece of land under the jurisdiction of the Syiem (traditional head) of Raid Marwet, Ri-Bhoi district.
Once the matter was brought to light, the Ri-Bhoi district administration wrote to its Kamrup (Metropolitan) counterpart to stop the construction. It is not known if Assam has heeded the letter.
Earlier this year, MLAs representing constituencies along the interstate border had expressed concern over the ASTC construction site and regular skirmishes along the disputed stretches of the border with Assam.
According to the Meghalaya government, the Assam government has prevented four development projects from being implemented by Meghalaya along the border from 2018 to February this year. The Meghalaya government has stopped 16 projects by Assam.
