The Jaiñtia Hills Solidarity and Welfare Union (JHSWU) is pushing for the restoration of the disputed Blocks 1 and 2 from Assam.
In this vein, the JHSWU submitted a memorandum in January to the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), a think tank. The following month, it was announced in Parliament that IDSA had prepared a report into how to resolve the internal border disputes within the North East.
The think tank had prepared formulas that it felt would enable these disputes to be resolved. The report prepared by the IDSA was sent to all the states in the North East region seeking their comments.
Assam has inter-state border disputes with Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Due to the lack of proper demarcation of the inter-state border and use of common areas by residents of all the states, there have been numerous skirmishes among the people of these states.
The governments of Assam and Meghalaya embarked on a two-phase approach to resolve their disputed border, splitting the areas of difference into two chunks. A deal to resolve the first phase was signed in March. Blocks 1 and 2 will be tackled as part of Phase 2.
In a release, the JHSWU said that its representation to ISDA made it clear that Blocks 1 and 2 were wrongly split from Jaiñtia Hills when Meghalaya was still part of Assam, in 1951.
“A large chunk of Jaiñtia Hills, the very small abode of the Jaiñtia left of their larger kingdom was unconstitutionally detached, transferred and mechanically tagged with the non-adjoining and truncated Mikir Hills (now Karbi Anglong) in April 1951, very soon after the promulgation of the Constitution of Independence India on January 26, 1950,” the missive said.
The Constitution was meant to provide for the protection and fiscal assistance of the Scheduled Tribes but the Assamese government “meddled with the tribal areas against the Constitution and against the ethno-geography and geo-polity of the hill tribes in the region hardly 15 months after the Indian Constitution came into force,” it added.
According to it, Assam detached a large portion of the Jaiñtia Hills comprising of one Dalloiship (Nongphyllut) and one Sirdarship (Langsoh-Mynriang) and mechanically tagged these with the truncated Mikir Hills to create the new United Mikir and North Cachar Hills district on April 13, 1951.
“Geographically the Jaiñtia Hills and the Mikir Hills are in no way adjoining to each other. Even historically and culturally the two tribes are poles apart from each other. When a new district of United Mikir and North Cachar Hills was created in April 1951, the then government of Assam denied the Mikirs the plains portion particularly the Lumding’s north east region where the Mikirs are predominantly concentrated. Instead of attaching this plains portion to the new district as demanded by the Mikirs, the then Assam government had arbitrarily sought to transfer a large chunk of Jaiñtia Hills to the Mikir Hills which are hundred kilometre apart from each other thereby bypassing the provision of the Constitution of India for protecting the Scheduled and Tribal Areas of the respective tribes,” JHSWU member Omarlin Kyndiah said.
