Assam CM Sarma discusses border dispute with his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma on Wednesday met in Shillong and discussed various issues including Assam-Meghalaya border dispute issue.

The Assam Chief Minister and Meghalaya Chief Minister on Wednesday inaugurated the Karbi Hemtun at Shillong.

Constructed at a cost of Rs 21.5 crore, this state-of-the-art guest house can accommodate more than 50 people.

Similar such modern guest houses for the Karbi community are being constructed in Guwahati, Kolkata and New Delhi.

Both Chief Ministers interacted with media persons and talked about the ongoing process to resolve the border dispute issue between both states.

The Assam Chief Minister said that both Chief Ministers will meet in Guwahati in the first week or second week of October.

“We discussed the ongoing works of regional committees and there is a lot of progress. Recently we could finally agree on the survey post of Hahim. There is lot of progress is happening on both sides. We discussed about confidence-building measures too. But today’s discussion was unofficial and informal. But this informal meeting will be followed by a formal meeting. I would like to request both sides of people to maintain peace and harmony because they must remember that we are working overtime to resolve the dispute. We want to keep the best interest of the people living on both sides of the border, in our mind we want to protect them. We will try to resolve the dispute to the satisfaction of the people of both Assam and Meghalaya,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

“….. probably we will be able to take some confidence-building measures and with that, we will visit the border. Because we thought that our visit should not create tension. If both CMs go to the area and after our return, there is fresh tension, then people will blame us. For that, we sat today and thereafter we will have a formal meeting. Once those confidence-building measures are formalized we will go to the sites and we will discuss with the people of the border village also,” he added.
Assam and Meghalaya have partially resolved a 50-year-old border dispute in six of the 12 sectors along their 885-km boundary.

In March last year, Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma signed a “historic” agreement for a closure in six disputed sectors that were taken up for resolution in the first phase in presence of Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.