Tura, May 24: Even as talks are currently ongoing between the State Government and the Government of Assam in an effort to resolve the long pending border dispute between the two states, an instance of forcibly grabbing Meghalaya land by those from Assam has surfaced in South West Garo Hills District with the AHAM unit from the same district submitting a complaint in this regard to West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner, Jagadish Chelani, on Wednesday.
Members of the AHAM met the Deputy Commissioner at his office chamber in Tura and sought his intervention on the matter.
According to Wester G Sangma, the General Secretary of the AHAM, South Western Zone, the incident of forcible land grabbing took place on Sunday, May 21 where Assam officials came and tried to claim land belonging to local resident, Smt Indong Ch Sangma as that belonging to Late Akash Ali of Dhapguri village under Mankachar PS, South Salmara in Assam.
The land in question is located in the vicinity of Chattibui market near Jongkipara outpost under Garobadha PS in WGH.
According to the AHAM, the Assam side produced documents relating to a supposed land dispute case between late Akash Ali and one, Shan Kumar Hajong filed at the Assam HC, leading to a decree order being issued by the court in favour of Late Ali. Interestingly, there was no mention of Smt Indong Ch Sangma, the actual owner of the land in the documents. Sangma has in her possession a patta against the said land as well the latest receipt for revenue paid to the GHADC.
“If there was a land dispute case in court, it should have been filed against Sangma, who possesses the necessary land patta. When we asked them on what basis the case was filed, they were unable to answer and left,” Wester said.
In addition to the forcible attempted land grabbing, Sunday’s incident also led to the destruction of a total of 71 shops belonging to locals, by the Assam officials.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner during their meeting has reportedly assured to take necessary action with regard to the matter, including deploying security personnel to the area. A similar complaint was also submitted by the organization to GHADC CEM, Albinush Marak, who also assured to look into the matter.