TURA, March 13: While there has been a lot of noise that has been created by many villages of Khasi Hills over the land swap deal with the Assam state, there has been an eerie silence of the state government over the Garo Hills section.
Many parts of Garo Hills, including West, North and South West Garo Hills share a border with Assam with many places along which disputes have arisen. Some of the problem areas for the state have been places like Hallidayganj, Phulbari, Chibinang as well as B-Mahal lands in West and North Garo Hills. These disputes, even till today, have not been resolved.
Tura MDC, Bernard Marak has now questioned the silence of the state government on the land swap deal with the state of Assam, in Garo Hills. “There has been a lot of noise about the land swap in Khasi Hills but the silence in Garo Hills over what has been decided in the land swap with Assam is giving everyone the jitters,” stated Bernard.
The Tura MDC said that there have been apprehensions expressed by many, especially in the B-Mahal areas, over what was happening and wanted to know if the state government was trying to give away land in these areas to Assam.
“Earlier the District Council had been asked to hand over the B-Mahal areas to the state government. What is even more interesting is that one of the leading politicians has even demanded about 3,000 bighas of land in this area. So we want the government to clarify on the matter so that the people of Garo Hills can put this uncertainty to rest,” said Bernard.
He questioned as to why the matter relating to the land swap in Garo Hills was not being made public as it was promoting the wrong picture to people of the area.
