SHILLONG, March 23: Pressure is mounting on the National People’s Party-led MDA government for a relook into the interstate boundary settlement.
While many villagers have been expressing resentment over the prospect of being tagged with Assam, the NPP’s allies are dissuading the government from taking any step that goes against the interest of the border residents.
The United Democratic Party (UDP) asked the state government to re-examine the issue after some affected villagers, Raids and a few Himas protested the government’s decision to leave them out of Meghalaya. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) echoed a similar sentiment.
“If the state government goes for a final settlement with so many people still protesting at the border villages, it will be an injustice to them,” adviser to the chief minister and senior BJP leader, Alexander L Hek said on Wednesday.
He said he had been insisting since the start of the boundary parleys that all stakeholders should be taken on board for arriving at an acceptable agreement.
Hek reiterated that a piecemeal solution will not work and the government should have taken all the 12 disputed areas together instead of going in a phased manner. “If the people are unhappy and protesting, what does it imply?” he asked.
Asked if he would take up the issue with the CM, the BJP leader said he has been issuing statements through the media continuously and those at the helm of affairs are aware of it. The chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya are scheduled to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah on March 27. The meeting is expected to yield the final border deal.
The UDP had earlier cautioned the governments of Meghalaya and Assam against resolving the dispute in six of the 12 areas of differences without taking the border residents into confidence. It urged the two states to refrain from going against the wishes and sentiments of the border residents.
