SHILLONG, March 20: Villagers in the Gizang sector of the West Khasi Hills district have lost their sleep over becoming a part of Assam following the final deal to settle the interstate boundary dispute.
With all of their options exhausted, they are meeting on Monday to decide on how to remain with Meghalaya.
The villagers have been put in a spot by the insistence of many residents of two 100% Garo villages – 104 households in Malchapara and 46 households in Salbari – to go with Assam. The inhabitants of the other villages in the sector are desperate to dissuade them ahead of the final boundary settlement.
The Assam and Meghalaya governments signed a memorandum of understanding to resolve the boundary dispute in six “less complicated” areas. There are 12 such areas of differences along the 885 km interstate boundary.
The local leaders tried to stop the people of the two villages by meeting politicians, members of the KHADC and pressure groups.
“We have sought the intervention of the KHADC, met political and NGO leaders and had tried to meet the chief minister who had left for Delhi by then,” Malchapara resident, Jewash Sangma said on Sunday.
He said some people of these two villages under the Nonglang Sirdarship are in despair but are determined not to go to Assam.
Hundreds of residents of these villages had earlier taken out a protest rally demanding withdrawal of the Meghalaya government’s decision to hand over the areas to Assam.
The protestors shouted slogans such as “No Meghalaya No Rest” and “We want to be with Meghalaya”.
During the budget session of the state Assembly, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma had said that the decision was made in deference to the wishes of the majority of the locals.
He said when a public hearing was conducted there, the majority of the people had said they wanted to be with Assam. The case was the same in Tarabari and Hahim.
“That was the basis on which we decided. We cannot change the yardstick for Malchapara as we had applied the same yardstick while deciding on other areas such as Tarabari, Amagaon and Gizang,” Sangma had said.