Unsatisfied with the state government’s to consult all stakeholders on the subject, nominated MDC Bindo Lanong feels that the district councils should, in fact, be made party to the Phase 2 border deal between Meghalaya and Assam.
The Phase 1 agreement was signed in March, to great frustration, anger and feeling of betrayal by many residents who wished to be part of Meghalaya but have now found their villages at the mercy of Assam. Many different bodies, including the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), have mulled legal challenges to the deal.
Instead of treating the district councils as important partners in the negotiations, Lanong told Highland Post that the state government is only concerned about them when requiring help to arrange visits with traditional village headmen (who come under the KHADC).
“Discussions that took place without the representatives from the autonomous district councils are inappropriate because something that should not have been agreed was agreed and what should have been agreed was not,” Lanong, who is also a senior figure in the United Democratic Party (UDP), said.
The National People’s Party (NPP) has taken great pride in the deal and the legislators from coalition allies also support it in public. However, members of coalition parties outside the Assembly, such as Lanong, have found the deal harder to swallow.
He said that the deal was made in haste and was done solely by the government so that it could claim credit for solving the intractable border dispute.
“Who does not want this long-pending issue to be resolved?” he asked. “But it should not be done just for the sake of doing it, especially if that means that our lands are lost to Assam.”
The contents of the Phase 1 deal were never shared with the district councils or even the Assembly before it was signed. Instead, it was presented to the legislature as a fait accompli after Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma signed it with his Assam counterpart in New Delhi.
Lanong said that it was unfair to sideline the councils but Sangma would rather do everything himself.
Given all that is wrong with the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two states, Lanong, a former Deputy CM, was of the opinion that it is justified that some of the Himas have moved court against the deal.
