The newly-constituted West Khasi Hills regional committee on the inter-state border will soon conduct a joint ground inspection with its counterpart from Assam as part of the Phase 2 negotiations between Meghalaya and its neighbouring state to resolve their disputed border.
The regional committee had recently met in Nongstoin and called all concerned stakeholders, including villagers and NGOs, etc falling under the Langpih sector as laid out in the 2011 report, Rambrai Jyrngam MDC Bajop Pyngrope, who is also a member of the regional committee, told Highland Post.
In the Langpih sector, only lands under Hima Nongmynsaw are disputed, he added.
Representatives of the Hima have submitted a list of more than 40 villages that have passed resolutions in favour of belonging to Meghalaya.
The regional committee has taken note of all the developments and is preparing to undertake a ground inspection jointly with the regional committee from Assam sometime next month.
Pyngrope is hopeful that the decision taken by the two joint committees will have a positive outcome.
When asked about the West Jaiñtia Hills regional committee and the dispute concerning the tax gate at Khanduli, he said that he is also coordinating with that regional committee.
However, he said that these sorts of problems will keep on cropping up so long as the border remains disputed, hence the importance of border negotiations.
“I am very keen that this long pending boundary dispute between the two states is resolved at the earliest and we are in constant touch with the border residents from several other areas including Khanduli and Psiar,” the MDC maintained.
When asked about the demand to re-transfer the disputed Block 1 to Meghalaya, Pyngrope said, “Yes we would want all the six areas of differences to be with us, be it Block 1, 2 or whatever but, at the end of the day, the ground situation matters, not forgetting that one of the criteria of the boundary talks is also the willingness of the people.”
When asked, he said that the critics will always be there to say that the government under the National People’s Party (of which he is a member) is trying to solve the boundary differences in haste but, as leaders, the government is bound to take the right call on this unresolved issue that keeps creating problems for border residents.
“If we take a call now, then 30 years down the line the generation that will come will positively remember this government. We must not forget that it is the people at ground zero that want this problem to be solved at the earliest because they are the ones who are suffering,” he maintained.
