SHILLONG, Sep 10: Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and AYUSH, Sarbananda Sonowal has downplayed the resentment of border residents on the interstate boundary pact signed by Assam and Meghalaya for resolving the disputes in six of the 12 areas in the first phase.
Asked if the decision was taken in haste, Sonowal, who was in Shillong on Saturday, told reporters there is no problem. “We will work and stay together,” he said.
He had made a similar statement earlier too when he said, “We will work together, stay together and live together as ‘Ek Bharat and Shreshtha Bharat’.”
The former Assam Chief Minister said the Centre is working towards making India the most powerful and a self-reliant nation.
The opposition to the boundary pact still exists but the state government has made it amply clear there is no going back. The ground work for the second phase has already started.
Sonowal said the people of Meghalaya will get tremendous benefit from the Ministry of Ayush. It will promote the state’s traditional practices of medicines, he said.
He also said that the North East Institute of Ayurveda should promote and highlight all available species of plants in Meghalaya, used for medicinal purposes.