Tura, Mar 23: The Association for Democracy and Empowerment (ADE) on Wednesday lent support to the hundreds of people in disputed border areas with Assam, who want to be a part of Meghalaya and has urged the Meghalaya government to reconsider its decision and not hand their villages over to Assam.
“ It has come to our knowledge that several villages belonging to Meghalaya are being handed over to Assam by the Meghalaya without providing any information to the stakeholders in the process of the ongoing border dispute negotiation between the two states. Border villages like Malchapara, Salbari under Nonglang Sardership in West Khasi Hills district which ethnically and historically belong to Meghalaya will go to Assam as part of the border solution. We appreciate the efforts of the both state authorities but we can’t accept any decision taken behind the curtain,” its President Dalseng Bira Ch Momin said.
Momin urged the authorities not to keep the negotiation hidden from the actual stakeholders as it was they and their progeny who would be affected by the decision in future while adding that the memorandum of understanding signed between the two states should also be made public.
“These people have been part and parcel of Meghalaya for many generations. They hold voter identity cards, draw electricity for MeECL and do their schooling under MBOSE all from Meghalaya. So how can all this be undone simply by a stroke of a pen. We believe a solution will not come based on what the two governments agree on but on the mutual consent of the border residents of the two states,” the association said.
