SHILLONG, July 26: Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday said the demand of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution outside the Parliament building and for the repeal of the Assam-Meghalaya boundary pact was an attempt to politicise the issues devoid of meaning or genuine concerns.
“We have all passed a resolution together (on the issues) in the House. It is good they are showing so much concern but I wish they had shown such concern when they were in the government. It is apparent that they are trying to derive mileage now,” he said while reacting to the TMC’s protest in New Delhi.
He, however, appreciated the TMC for taking up the language issue. “Our ultimate goal is to get the Khasi and Garo language in the Eighth Schedule. It is good they are demanding this. We are also exerting pressure from our side,” Sangma said.
On the TMC’s demand for scrapping the border MoU, he said: “It is funny that they are demanding the repeal of something they had asked for. The report on which the MoU was signed is theirs, not mine. They are demanding the repeal of the very report they had submitted.”
Stating that almost 90% of the villages in the six areas of differences taken up in the first phase have come to Meghalaya based purely on public sentiments, Sangma acknowledged the exclusion of some villages but gave reasons for that.
“One reason is that some villages in the disputed areas were already in Meghalaya; thus, the question of their desire to be in Meghalaya does not arise. Another is that the list of disputed villages submitted in 2011-12 by Mukul M Sangma did not include the names of these villages,” Sangma said.
Pointing out that the opposition is now asking why the government did not go by the revenue maps, he said: “It is almost like saying I submitted my report but it was faulty and so you had no business to accept the report.”
Sangma said people in the state have suffered for too long. “It is sad that they are trying to politicise the issue by repeating,” he added, insisting that the opposition should have worked together with the government in the larger interest of the people.
“We acted on our commitment to reach an agreement in six of the 12 areas of dispute on the Assam-Meghalaya border. There is no question of going back on the agreement,” he said.
