Opposition MLA George Lyngdoh has claimed that the Meghalaya government is desperately trying to cover up mistakes made in Phase 1 of the negotiations with Assam over the dispute border between the two states but he fears that the neighbouring state will again run rings around Meghalaya.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator said that, in trying to cover up its mistakes, the state government is making further errors.
“If you read the MoU (the memorandum of understanding signed between the two states to conclude Phase 1 in March this year), there were only five criteria on which the villages (along the disputed border0 were to be brought either under Meghalaya or Assam,” Lyngdoh said. “But if you see the ground reality and read the MoU, you can see that the criteria have been bent and even discarded from one area to the other.”
The criteria were historical facts, ethnicity, administrative convenience, geographical continuity and willingness of the people.
The agreement to conclude the first phase was signed earlier this year, to great frustration, anger and even a feeling of betrayal by many residents who wished to be part of Meghalaya but have now found themselves at the mercy of Assam.
The Umroi MLA said that Assam had bulldozed and bullied Meghalaya into giving up land that was not even in dispute. Then again, there are instances where villages should have gone to Meghalaya under the criteria laid out but instead were inexplicably surrendered to Assam.
“Now, with this confusion and mistakes, there is no more confidence in the citizens that the second phase will go in a manner that will be beneficial to the state,” Lyngdoh said. “In the first phase, the settlement was only about 36 square kilometres but here in the second phase it is more than 2,000 square kilometres at stake.”
He also criticised the Meghalaya government for refusing to make the deal with Assam public before it was signed, despite repeated requests in the Assembly.
“As the opposition, we see the second phase will again be hijacked by Assam. We may even lose more land that does not even belong to the areas of difference,” the legislator added.
The people affected by the first phase are filled with unrest, Lyngdoh said, as they are not confident about the future, especially as their land will go from having Sixth Schedule protections under Meghalaya to none under Assam, where the National Register of Citizens could also apply.
