Amid strong objection by most people of Meghalaya against the proposed ‘give and take policy’ to resolve the vexed boundary dispute with Assam, the second round of border talks between the two states will take place tomorrow.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma will meet his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma at Guwahati tomorrow afternoon for the talks on the boundary issue.
Sangma will be accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, Chief Secretary M S Rao, Director General of Police R Chandranathan and other senior government officials at the meeting.
On July 23, Sangma held his first border talks with Sarma at the State secretariat here. Chief Secretaries and other senior officials of both governments were also present at the meeting.
During the talks, the two states agreed to go beyond the status quo and discuss all 12 places one by one based on documentary evidence. Both Sangma and Sarma said that if necessary, they would visit all the 12 disputed areas.
The 12 areas of difference between the two states include Tarabari, Gizang, Hahim, Langpih, Borduar, Boklapara, Nongwah-Mawtamur, Khanapara-Pillangkata, Desh Doomreah, Block I and II, Khanduli-Psiar and Ratacherra, and cover an area of 2729.14 square km. Blocks I and II cover 1583.42 square km.
The Meghalaya government in the past has submitted documents to Assam to prove that these areas belong to Meghalaya.
The Meghalaya government has on July 26 set up three regional committees to examine all issues related to the boundary issue.
The three regional committees will deal with boundary matters respectively for the districts of West Khasi Hills, Ri-Bhoi, East and West Jaintia Hills where there is boundary dispute with Assam.
The committee for West Khasi Hills is headed by PHE Minister Renikton L. Tongkhar while the committee for Ri-Bhoi is headed by Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui. The committee for the two districts of Jaintia Hills is headed by Transport Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar.
The committees have already started visiting the border areas where there are claims and counterclaims by the two states.
Majority of people in the State have rejected the proposal for ‘give and take’ policy to solve the boundary dispute with Assam. People said that since Meghalaya had never encroached into Assam territory, such a policy would be suicidal.
Even the opposition Congress opposed the ‘give and take policy’ and said that all talks on the boundary issue should be based on documentary evidence.
The Meghalaya Assembly had in March 2011 passed a resolution calling upon the Centre to set up a Boundary Commission to resolve the boundary dispute with Assam.
Later, the Assam Assembly adopted another resolution negating the Meghalaya resolution.
Recently, the Centre has decided to demarcate boundaries of north-eastern states through satellite imaging. The task of demarcating boundaries has been given to the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC).
The idea behind roping in NESAC is that since there will be scientific methods in the demarcation of borders, there will be no scope for any discrepancy and there will be better acceptability of the boundary solutions by the states.
