Guwahati, Nov 29: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said the Mukroh incident would not have any adverse effects on ties between Assam and Meghalaya.
Reacting to a media query after a Cabinet meeting in Silchar, Sarma said, “Such incidents happen because of certain officers, individuals or because of local issues. I don’t think it will have any adverse effects on the broader landscape of Assam-Meghalaya relations.”
“However, I have always maintained and even advised youths in police recruitment rallies that police should never use weapons or fire at civilians. So I do not approve of the firing (by the police) at Mukroh…there could have been other possible ways to prevent thefts in the forest,” the chief minister said.
On “claims by the Meghalaya government about Mukroh village being located within Meghalaya’s jurisdiction, the chief minister said Assam and Meghalaya have a constitutional boundary with maps available to both the states.
“So I’m sure that the Meghalaya government will not do anything within the constitutional boundary of the state of Assam. If they do something that will not have any legal validity,” he said, adding that the minutes of the border meetings between the both governments are there, which state that status quo should be maintained by both states till a resolution is arrived at.
The chief minister further said that negotiations on the inter-state boundary were on and that “any boundary adjustment will happen through the regional committees that have formed by the two states.”
Allaying security concerns of tourists and transporters, the chief minister said that vehicles have been plying between the states in the past few days.
“We are duty bound to secure the lives of citizens of Meghalaya in Assam and the Meghalaya government too is constitutionally bound to provide security to the citizens of Assam. That is the understanding…So I do not think there is a problem,” Sarma said.
“In fact, the Meghalaya government has never prevented the Assam-registered vehicles from entering the state…it is the Assam government which issued an advisory against travel to avoid flare-ups (in the wake of the tense situation post the incident at Mukroh),” the chief minister said.
