Leader of the opposition and former Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma has castigated the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government for rushing into the border deal signed with Assam at the end of last month without taking on board the people of the concerned areas or their history.
Today, Dr Sangma visited two such villages that have expressed their unhappiness at finding that they will be included in Assam once the agreement is finalised.
The villages are Mawiong and Maikhuli in Ri-Bhoi. Speaking to the press after meeting residents, Dr Sangma said that the Meghalaya government has acted like a puppet of Assam.
If the state government had really taken into consideration the feelings of the border residents before coming to an agreement with Assam, then why are so many opposed to the deal, the opposition leader wondered.
He claimed that the MoU was signed without the consent of the locals or of the traditional institutions.
“It is a matter of great concern that the local residents in the border areas are not satisfied at all with the border settlement being carried out at the chief minister level” said Dr Sangma
While the MDA has made a loud show of sorting out the border dispute in a matter of months when the last 50 years had gone by without a resolution, Dr Sangma said that, when he was CM, the government was not in a hurry to settle the boundary dispute knowing that it was a complicated matter and that land documents had to be verified, records examined and people’s views taken into account. All of this does not apply to the MDA, he added.
The ex-CM also visited Malang Salbari in West Khasi Hills, where stiff opposition to giving the village to Assam has emerged. “Malang has always been within Meghalaya and never in dispute. The land may belong to Meghalaya but not Chief Minister Conrad Sangma. He has no right to give it away,” Dr Sangma told residents there.
“Even if individuals want to join Assam, they cannot do so without the assent of the Hima or the Nokma. That’s the spirit of the Sixth Schedule,” he added.
