SHILLONG/ NONGPOH, March 22: HSPDP president KP Pangniang on Tuesday said all the regional committees on the interstate boundary did their homework well, taking everybody on board and giving enough opportunities to the stakeholders to voice their opinions.
He is a member of the West Khasi Hills Regional Committee.
Reacting to some villagers and Himas resenting the Meghalaya government’s decision to make them a part of Assam, Pangniang said there will always be disagreements in a democratic set-up.
Assam and Meghalaya are set to seal the final deal on six of the 12 areas of differences along the 885-km boundary between the two states. These six are considered “less complicated”.
The HSPDP chief denied allegations that the three regional committees of the state did not listen to the people to be affected by the final boundary settlement.
“Opportunity was given to all stakeholders from the spot inspection and survey to preparing the reports. Members of the district council, Himas, landowners, pressure groups and political parties besides locals were taken onboard. What we have done was in keeping with the wish and mutual understanding of the people in the disputed areas,” he said.
Appreciating the current dispensation for its seriousness in resolving the pending border dispute, he said the ball is now in the court of the Ministry of Home Affairs. “The Centre will take the final call on what the two state governments have mutually agreed upon,” he added.
Pangniang declined to comment on ally UDP’s call for revisiting some of the areas where resentment is growing. “We are free to express ourselves in a democracy but we should come up with suggestions when the opportunity is provided,” he said.
He denied allegations that the regional committees did not conduct the public hearings properly and ignored the memorandums submitted by a few villagers who want to stay in Meghalaya.
People of Maikhuli, one of the affected border villages in the Ri-Bhoi district, on Tuesday, protested the “decision” of the Meghalaya government to hand over the village fishery pond to Assam.
Local leaders who gathered at the Maikhuli Government LP School produced land documents and certificates obtained from the Syiem of Raid Marwet to prove that the fishery pond belongs to the village.
The land was registered with the Revenue Department at the Ri-Bhoi deputy commissioner’s office twice – first in the 1990s and then in 2008.
Soon after the meeting, the agitating villagers along with leaders of some NGOs tried to march towards the fishery pond along with placards. The police and a magistrate intervened but did not succeed in stopping them.
“This is our land. Why do you stop us, why can’t we go to our own land?” the villagers asked the magistrate.
Maikhuli village headman Kleden Sangma, former headman Henithson Marak and a woman named Serimina Marak later told reporters that their village has been the custodian of the fishery pond since time immemorial. “There is no justification in handing it over to Assam without taking our wishes and sentiments into consideration,” the headman said.