SHILLONG, Nov 24: PHE Minister, Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar on Wednesday said the West Khasi Hills regional committee on interstate border, which he heads as chairperson, will submit its report to the state government by November 30.
“We are working on the report and we will, hopefully, submit it by November 30,” Tongkhar said. He said the report will be positive.
He had carried out inspection at Tarabari, Gizang and Hahim listed in phase 1. He said he had received a positive response during his interactions with the border residents.
He refused to divulge the findings but said, “The report will be very good. I hope both states will be happy. We want a win-win situation”.
The committee has legislators Macmillan Byrsat, Gigur Myrthong and Kimfa Marbaniang as members.
On the Congress’s allegation that its MLAs and MDCs, who are a part of the committee, have been left in the dark, Tongkhar said, “I don’t think so. The local MLA was cooperative and used to go with us during the joint inspections”.
Stating that the committee met just once, he said, “We are going to have a meeting again on November 29 at Nongstoin and we want to take everybody along. We listen, deliberate and accept suggestions from everybody.”
He said he was happy that the Congress MLAs and MDCs cooperated a lot.
Tongkhar also said that the visit of Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma to Langpih was decided at the last moment and that it was a goodwill gesture and not inspection or meeting to let the people know that both governments are serious about the issue and eager to solve it.
The minister is hopeful that Langpih will feature in phase two of the efforts to resolve the dispute.
Home Minister, Lahkmen Rymbui said the ground work has been completed and the East Jaintia Hills regional committee, which he heads, will meet on November 28 in Shillong to discuss the way forward.
He said everything the committee was tasked with has been completed and the only thing left is solution to the problem.
Asked about his findings, he said, “I do not want to play judge or disclose anything since the talks are at a crucial juncture and I do not want to make any statement which instead of solving the problem may aggravate it.”
Both states have constituted three regional committees each. They have been assigned to examine the status of six of the 12 areas of differences.
The six areas are Tarabari, Gizang, Hahim, Boklapara, Khanapara-Pilangkata and Ratacherra. They fall under West Khasi Hills, Ri Bhoi and East Jaintia Hills districts of Meghalaya and Cachar, Kamrup and Kamrup (Metro) districts of Assam.
