The Hynñiewtrep Border Dispute Redressal Forum (HBDRF) has warned that the Assam tax gate at Khanduli could create another Mukroh.
It was at Mukroh, a village in West Jaiñtia Hills, that Assam police and forest guards clashed with villagers from Meghalaya and five of the latter party were shot dead in November last year.
“The presence of the forest check gate at Mukroh made the Karbi Anglong council to claim that the land beyond the check gate was under its jurisdiction but the fact is that beyond the forest check gate, more than 4-5 kilometres is still under Mukroh where the people of Mukroh also have their farmlands,” HBDRF chairman Chandame Sungoh told Highland Post today.
The Mukroh villagers were unwilling then and are still unwilling to compromise on their land rights while Assam considers all the territory beyond the Mukroh check gate to be part of Karbi Anglong.
Sungoh warned that the presence of the tax gate at Khanduli, erected by the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council on April 15 this year may again give rise to a situation like Mukroh.
Extending its full support to the protest by the Jaiñtia Students’ Movement (JSM), which is demanding the removal of the Khanduli tax gate along the Meghalaya-Assam border, Sungoh said that the forum will join the protest because the check gate has only brought tension and brawls between the Jaintia and Karbi communities on the border.
Both Khanduli and Mukroh fall under Meghalaya’s jurisdiction but this appears to be on paper only, Sungoh lamented.
“Our message to the state government is to take up the matter immediately by initiating discussions at the state level with Assam and the JHADC (Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council) should also immediately meet the CEM (Chief Executive Member) of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council on the matter and if the lands as per the notification of April 13, 1951 are under Meghalaya, the tax gate should immediately be removed and peace be restored.”
