SHILLONG, June 1: Cabinet Minister Renikton Tongkhar, who headed the West Khasi Hills district regional committee, said some villages, unhappy over the boundary deal, are now controlled by Assam while some others by both states but the biggest problem is that the residents have dual election photo identity card (EPIC).
“Some of those villages are controlled by Assam and some by both states in terms of development. The people have dual EPIC which is the biggest problem. We had told them during our inspection to be clear about which state they want to live in and delete their names from the other state,” Tongkhar told reporters.
He said if the issue is not resolved, both states will claim the people and the villages to be theirs.
He revealed there are some pockets where the people do not want the dispute to be resolved as they are enjoying benefits from both states. He said this can be stopped only by finalising the boundary deal.
The All India Trinamool Congress had criticised the regional parties in the state’s ruling coalition for their alleged silence on the demand to review the memorandum of understanding. But Tongkhar retorted, “How can they say so? We are directly involved in decision making.
We tried our best to do something in the interest of the people. Out of 23 villages in West Khasi Hills, we got 21. I don’t think we have done anything wrong.”
He said most of the villages, which wanted to be with Meghalaya, were not included in the list of 2011 and not claimed.
Explaining it, he said both governments had in 2011 agreed to identify the disputed villages. The Assam government had asked for a list but the then Meghalaya government did not submit the names of some villages despite the residents’ claim they were part of Meghalaya.
“The regional committee had recommended that these villages may be considered. The matter was raised with the Assam government but it refused by stating that their names were not there in the 2011 list and as such, cannot be considered,” Tongkhar said.
He said there are some villages that are already in Meghalaya but unaware of it, the residents are complaining about being pushed to Assam.
He cited an instance where the residents of a particular village had met Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma but upon verification, it emerged that the village is very much within Meghalaya.
