- NET Web Desk
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today asserted that he along with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will meet the Union Minister of Home Affairs & Cooperation, Amit Shah on Thursday evening in New Delhi to submit the recommendation of the two northeastern states for resolving the boundary row in six disputed areas.
Sangma announced the same after chairing a meeting of the Meghalaya cabinet which approved the recommendations of the three regional committees set up by his government on the boundary dispute.
The recommendations of the regional committees of Meghalaya and those of the Assam government will be given to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for further actions, he said.
“The Assam chief minister and I will submit the reports to the Union Home Minister in Delhi on Thursday evening (after 6 pm). We will be submitting more or less a common report and then I think the Government of India has to move according to the laws,” – mentioned Sangma.
After discussions, the MHA will finalize a “conclusion” but more or less the structure has been reached after a long-drawn exercise between the two states, he said.
He further added that “the Survey of India will have to come in and joint inspections may have to be done and the bill has to be there (passed)”.
The two states have agreed on the villages in the border areas, and identified natural boundaries such as rivers and forests, he said. There are 36 villages in the six places of difference, covering an area of 36.79 sq km which will be equally shared between the two northeastern states.
Its worthy to note that for settling the border disputes, Assam & Meghalaya government had formed three regional committees each, which is led by Cabinet ministers and officials of the two northeastern states. These committees were directed to focus on 5 aspects – historical facts, ethnicity, administrative convenience, contiguity of the land, willingness and people’s sentiments.
Based on the same, the regional committees were tasked with the responsibility of making joint visits to “areas of differences” along the inter-state border, thereby interacting with all stakeholders, village heads, record their views, and finally submit their reports.
