SHILLONG, Aug 21: As Assam and Meghalaya set the ball rolling on Sunday for the second phase of boundary talks, the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) said any decision on the demarcation of the boundary should be taken in agreement with the Himas and the autonomous district councils.
Failure to take all the stakeholders on board before signing any documents for resolving the six disputed sectors in the second phase will not be tolerated, the organisation said.
HYC president Robertjune Kharjahrin asked Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and the state government not to act as a “trailer of Assam’s jeep” and to refrain from being dictated by his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma or his government.
He advised Sangma to take a firm stand in order to ensure all the villages inhabited by the Khasi-Pnar people and territories falling under the Himas stay with Meghalaya.
Reiterating that they are not against the settlement of border disputes with Assam, the HYC said both governments should take up all the remaining six sectors — Langpih, Block 1 & Block 2, Khanduli-Psiar, Nongwah Mawtamur, Borduar and Desh Doomreah — in the right earnest.
“We saw that the five agreed principles of historical facts, ethnicity, geographical contiguity, administrative convenience and willingness of the people were not followed by the governments while arriving at a decision during the first phase of talks. Too much importance was given to the will of the people residing in the affected areas who in fact are only the tenants and settlers and not even owners of the land of the Hima Khasi. Even the agreed principle of historical fact and documents were disregarded during the whole process,” Kharjahrin said.
The organisation said it was disturbing and amusing that even though the regional committees were formed with an objective to submit a report to the government to come up with a solution, the recommendations of the West Khasi Hills regional committee were not accepted at all by Sangma. All decisions taken were in contravention of the WKH committee’s recommendations, it added.
“Even before signing the MoU, the state government did not consult the important stakeholders such as the Himas, Dorbar Shnongs and the ADCs. This hurt the sentiments of a majority of the stakeholders and this action of the government even made the affected Dorbar Himas approach the Supreme Court to seek justice and remedies,” the HYC said.
