Meghalaya, Nov 20: Meghalaya Congress has cautioned the State Government against any hasty deal with Assam for resolving the inter-State border disputes.
Meghalaya CM Conrad K. Sangma had after inspecting Langpih with his Assam counterpart, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the efforts were on to resolve the problem in six of the 12 disputed sites before Christmas this year.
Langpih is not among the six “less complicated” Border sites that Meghalaya and Assam have agreed to resolve first.
“Christmas could be restive if the Sangma-led coalition Government agrees to a deal that hurts Meghalaya’s interests. We want the Government to take all stakeholders, including legislators of the border areas, on board before signing any pact,” senior Congress leader Ampareen Lyngdoh said.
The Congress wondered how the two States would resolve the problem in such a quick time when the complexity of the dispute made it linger for almost 50 years.
The two States had in August constituted three regional committees each. As mandated, the committee members conducted joint visits to disputed areas for discussing with the local residents and understanding their problems.
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A high-level panel formed by the two Governments will hold deliberations once these regional committees submit their reports.
Both states had agreed that the disputes would be resolved based on historical facts, ethnicity, and administrative convenience, the willingness of the people, and their overall sense of sentiments and contiguity of the land in dispute.
The Meghalaya Congress is wary of a raw deal in view of the alleged domination of the process to resolve the disputes by Sarma. The party claimed he was calling the shots.
