Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah gave the necessary push to resolve the long-pending border dispute between Assam and Meghalaya.
“There has been a lot of push from Prime Minister and Home Minister that they would like to see that these differences (Assam-Meghalaya border issue) are resolved because if India and Bangladesh can resolve the border issues then why can’t the states also. This is the stand they took,” said Sangma.
The Meghalaya CM further said that the process to resolve the dispute has been going on for several years.
“It is a process and the process has been going on for a long time. Everybody has done their part, contributed in their own way. The push was given in last few years by the Centre and both state governments,” he said.
Assam and Meghalaya governments on Tuesday signed a historic agreement here in the national capital to resolve their 50-year-old pending boundary differences.
Terming the agreement a result of teamwork, Sangma said, “I am thankful to Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma because they went the extra mile. It’s only because of overall teamwork that was there, we were able to resolve or at least come to some kind of a resolution in the first 6 areas of differences out of the 12.”
CM said that everyone wants border disputes to be resolved and this agreement will bring much-needed peace to the area.
“Issue of border dispute/differences has been there for the last 50 yrs. We’re celebrating the Golden Jubilee of our state this year and even after 50 years, this issue has remained. So, there’s a large section of society that wants a resolution to this, including the leadership,” said Sangma
“I think it is a very important resolution and it will lead to a lot of peace in the border areas,” he added.
The agreement was signed by the Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The governments of Assam and Meghalaya had come up with a draft resolution to resolve their border disputes in six of the 12 “areas of difference” along the 884-km boundary.
According to the proposed recommendations for the 36.79 square km of land, Assam will keep 18.51 square km and give the remaining 18.28 square km to Meghalaya.
The long-standing land dispute was sparked in 1972 when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam. The border issues came as a result of different readings of the demarcation of boundaries in the initial agreement for the new state’s creation. (ANI)
