SHILLONG, April 17: The people of Malchapara and Salbari village under Nonglang Sirdarship in the West Khasi Hills district are determined to fight to be in Meghalaya.
These villages have been protesting the March 29 interstate boundary deal that will put them on the map of Assam.
“We will not go to Assam, come what may,” Malchapara resident Jewash Sangma said, adding that the villagers are confused by the suggestions of leaders of the political parties and pressure groups who have been visiting them of late.
The confusion is specifically about whether or not to go to court against the boundary pact, he said.
Sangma said two to three meetings are held every week to find a way to not go to Assam. The Nonglang Sirdarship has also assured them in this regard as the two villages figure in the 2011 claim the Meghalaya government had submitted to Assam.
“If our villages are on the 2011 list, how did they push us to Assam against our collective will?” he asked.
He further said that a huge protest rally will be taken out in Tura on April 22 by the affected villagers and members of various pressure groups who have extended their support.
“A bus full of Assam police personnel comes to the Malangkona area every day. They are often threatening the locals, triggering tension in the villages,” Sangma said.
The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) said the villagers to be left out of Meghalaya are justified in feeling deprived.
“We will take a call (on the boundary deal) after taking the opinions of the affected people. We have already apprised the government of respecting the sentiments and opinion of the stakeholders,” KSU president Lambokstar Marngar said on Sunday.
Resentment has been brewing in many border villages since the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya signed the border pact. It is said the pact is between two CMs and not the people living in the disputed border areas.
“What the pact entails has not been put in the public domain, the district council has no knowledge about the reports compiled by the regional committees, and the government said it cannot provide these reports. We are not happy with whatever agenda they have,” the KSU president said.
He added that the state government should have taken the consent from the Hima, the Syiem and the Rangbah Shnong before signing the agreement.
“The government should re-examine the pact and consider the voice of the people along the border,” Marngar said.
“If the government does not take this seriously, it will be very difficult to resolve the remaining six of the 12 disputed sites that are more complicated,” he said.