HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, May 24: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday held discussions for resolving an interstate dispute in the remaining six of the 12 locations.
After the meeting in Guwahati, Sarma announced at a press conference that he along with Sangma will visit the disputed areas in Assam’s Karbi Anglong and Meghalaya’s West Jaintia Hills, where the problem is a “little bit complicated”, next month.
The meeting was held in State Guest House, Koinadhora where Sarma along with his Meghalaya counterpart Sangma discussed at length the prevailing situation along the inter-state border and discussed the outstanding border issues in a very cordial and friendly atmosphere.
It may be noted that Assam and Meghalaya had 12 areas of disputes with regard to their inter-state boundaries and six areas have already been resolved. Wednesday’s chief minister-level meeting was the first after Conrad K Sangma started his second stint as the chief minister of Meghalaya.
The meeting had threadbare discussion on border disputes in six.
Their visit to the Karbi Anglong and West Jaintia Hills districts will feature talking to all the stakeholders in a bid to have confidence building measures for taking the border issues to their logical conclusion as per the provisions of the constitution.
The meeting also decided that the regional committees created for making the border talks productive would keep working to prepare the ground conducive for resolving the decade old border disagreements. The regional committees will also work and take different stakeholders in confidence to reach mutually agreeable solutions to border disputes maintaining total peace.
Sarma said, “We are working towards finding an amicable solution to the border rows between the two states based on the spirit of age-old friendship and camaraderie. Through the process of discussion, mutual trust and confidence, all the differences with regard to border issues will be resolved very soon”.
When asked if any deadline was set for finding a solution to the remaining six areas, Sarma said, “These six areas are a little bit complicated, putting a time frame is not a proper idea but we will meet in July to review the progress of work.
“People on both sides are emotive, temperatures are not different on either side,” he said, adding that the situation on the Assam side is a little different as the area bordering West Jaintia Hills district falls under Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC),” he said.
“As it is under KAAC, the Assam government does not have direct control over land but it does not mean that we are different entities. A representative of KAAC is there on the regional committee for the area. Whatever will be decided will be done by taking each side into confidence,” the Assam chief minister added.
Both the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya will sit for another meeting in the month of July where review of the progress made by the Regional Committees towards solution of border issues will be assessed, the chief minister added.
Minister for border protection and development Atul Bora, Water Resources etc. minister Pijush Hazarika, minister environment and Forest Chandra Mohan Patowary, chief secretary Paban Kumar Borthakur, principal secretary to the chief minister Samir Kumar Sinha, principal secretary to Border Protection and Development G.D. Tripathi and other senior officers were present at the meeting from the Assam side.
Moreover, from Meghalaya, deputy chief ministers Prestone Tynsong, Sniawbhalang Dhar, chief secretary D.P. Wahlang and other senior officers were present.
