GUWAHATI, Nov 12: Members of the regional committees, constituted by Assam and Meghalaya to find a lasting solution to the decades-old inter-state boundary dispute, inspected areas of Kamrup and West Khasi Hills districts on Friday.
The delegations were led by Kamrup regional committee chairperson and Assam border area development minister, Atul Bora and West Khasi Hills regional committee chairperson and Meghalaya PHE minister, Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar.
“We inspected areas of Kamrup and West Khasi Hills districts as part of the regional committee Upper Tarabari, Gamerimura, Dobakdrop and other areas and interacted with the villagers and representatives of local organisations to take their views and suggestions,” Assam minister Bora told mediapersons after the joint border inspection.
“The Assam and Meghalaya chief ministers will be visiting Lampi (Langpih) on November 16. So this visit comes ahead of the chief ministers’ visit. Our observations during the visit and feedback/opinions/suggestions of the residents of the areas would be discussed later,” he said.
It may be mentioned that the regional committees of the two states were formed following two meeting between the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya in August to find lasting solutions to the decades old border dispute between the two states.
The Tongkhar-led Meghalaya delegation comprised MLAs Macmillan Byrsat, Kimfa S Marbaniang and senior district and police officials while the Assam delegation comprised Boko MLA Nandita Das, Assam commissioner and secretary border protection and development department, G. D Tripathi and senior police and district officials.
Reiterating that the long pending border issues would be solved amicably for development of the areas, Bora lauded the path-breaking initiatives and political will of the chief ministers of the two states to resolve the problems through discussions.
“We are taking all the residents in the border areas into confidence and taking their wishes and aspirations (of being within the territory of either Assam or Meghalaya) into account,” he said.
The regional committees had last month visited at least seven inter-state border areas of Kamrup and West Khasi Hills districts in accordance with the decisions taken at the chief-ministerial level meeting here in August.
Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma had in the meeting stated that the way forward to an amicable solution would be guided primarily by five factors – historical facts, ethnicity of people, administrative convenience, consideration of sentiments/willingness of people and contiguity of land.
Assam and Meghalaya have mutually agreed to find amicable solutions to disputes in six of the 12 areas of differences between the two states, which are “less complicated” in nature.
The six areas of differences are Tarabari, Gizang, Hahim, Boklapara, Khanapara-Pilangkata and Ratacherra –falling under West Khasi Hills, Ri Bhoi, East Jaintia Hills districts in Meghalaya and Cachar, Kamrup Metro and Kamrup districts in Assam.