The Jaiñtia Hills Solidarity and Welfare Union (JHSWU) has written to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma over issues relating to the Block 2 area, which is in dispute with Assam.
Block 2 is one of the largest areas in dispute between the two states and was split off from Jaiñtia Hills in 1951 by the government of undivided Assam and was therefore not included in Meghalaya when it became a separate state in 1972.
However, the JHSWU argues that there are many villages in Block 2 that are populated by Khasi-Jaiñtias and that it was arbitrary and wrong for Assam to split the area off from Jaiñtia Hills.
However, the union is also aggrieved that Block 2 has been entrusted to the Ri-Bhoi regional committee that the Meghalaya government has appointed to consider areas specific to that district in the ongoing negotiations with Assam over the border.
“All along it (Block 2) has been considered together with Block 1, as the two blocks are contiguous parts of Jaiñtia Hills [that were] transferred unconstitutionally to Mikir Hills (now Karbi Anglong) in April 1951 by the then government of Assam,” the letter to the CM said.
The JHSWU had twice previously petitioned the Chief Secretary over Block 2’s regional committee status but those missives appear to have been “either ignored or neglected”. The letter also criticised Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong for saying that Block 2 falls under Hima Khyrim, although some of its citizens had, in the past, migrated to Block 2.
Transferring the two blocks back to Jaiñtia Hills is the “only solution to save lives” it added, referring to the recent Mukroh Massacre, where six people were shot dead by Assam police on Meghalaya territory in West Jaiñtia Hills.
“If the Assam government cannot be convinced to re-transfer the two blocks to Meghalaya so as to restore the pre-1951 map of Jaintia Hills as approved by the Constituent Assembly, the government of India may kindly be requested ultimately to intervene in the matter under Article 3 of the Constitution,” the letter, which was signed by JHSWU president PM Passah and general secretary Omarlin Kyndiah, said. “We are confident that the government of India will certainly entertain the matter on learning the history of how the two blocks were unconstitutionally transferred and mechanically tagged with the truncated Mikir Hills against the Constitution of India and against the people’s will.”
