The regional committees of both Assam and Meghalaya will be meeting here tomorrow to discuss the modalities for resolving the boundary dispute in Langpih sector of West Khasi Hills.
It may be mentioned that there are over 200 villages under Langpih sector out of which the bone of contention is in 54 villages.
While the majority of these 54 villages wanted to remain with Meghalaya, at least seven villages have expressed their willingness to be with Assam.
Chairman of the Regional Committee for West Khasi Hills Paul Lyngdoh and Chairman of Kamrup District sector Chandra Mohan Patowary along with members of the regional committees of both sides will attend the meeting.
The Regional Committee for West Khasi Hills also consists of three MLAs – Renington Lyngdoh Tongkhar, Methodius Dkhar and Remington Momin and two MDCs – Bajop Pyngrope and Gigur Myrthong besides other officials.
This would be the second meeting of the two regional committees after the one held in Guwahati on August 8.
It is expected that tomorrow’s meeting will also decide the date for a joint visit to Langpih to meet stakeholders, local representatives and residents before submitting the final reports to their respective chief ministers tentatively by November this year.
Yesterday, Paul Lyngdoh informed that Meghalaya has prepared a very substantive report on various claims made by the State in regards to the Langpih sector.
“We have now documented them properly and we expect that in the spirit of reconciliation and accommodation the meeting will take us closer to the final resolution of the boundary problems that we have had in the Langpih sector for the past several decades,” he said.
According to Lyngdoh, there are various parameters for deciding the status of Langpih sector which include ethnicity, contiguity, willingness of the people, history of the area, which government has been implementing developmental activities in such villages, electoral roll, when have these people voted where have they voted.
As far as settling the boundary dispute in the Langpih sector is concerned, the minister said that the two regional committees would first try to resolve matters relating to big clusters of villages where majority of the residents are Khasis. He also said that there are few villages which are dominated by non-Khasis and non-Garos.
