Festive balm to Assam-Meghalaya border row: Both states likely to sign new pact during Durga Puja

In the first phase, in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, the chief ministers of the two states signed the agreement by reaching a consensus on the six areas. Now, the two states are gearing up for the second phase of the agreement.

Guwahati:The long-standing border dispute between Assam and Meghalaya is on the verge of a phased settlement. Six of the 12 disputes have already been resolved and the dialogue process is underway to resolve the remaining six.

Several rounds of discussions have already been held at the chief ministerial level of the two states to resolve the remaining six disputes. In addition, the Ministerial Level Regional Committee constituted by the governments of the two states to resolve the dispute is also continuing with the discussions to find an amicable solution.

In the first phase, in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, the chief ministers of the two states signed the agreement by reaching a consensus on the six areas. Now, the two states are gearing up for the second phase of the agreement.

The two states are in the process of signing an agreement again during the upcoming Durga Puja. The two states have already started contacting the Union Home Ministry over the agreement to be held in New Delhi.

It is learnt that out of the six areas along the Assam-Meghalaya border, the border dispute in three areas has almost been resolved. These three areas are Lampi, Borduar and Des Dumaria respectively.

The governments of the two states are planning to sign an agreement on the boundary of these three sites on which the dispute has just been resolved by deciding to resolve the dispute over the remaining three places.

It may be recalled that the two governments had reached a consensus to resolve the border issue through dialogue by identifying a total of 12 areas along the Assam-Meghalaya border as disputed areas.

Accordingly, a tripartite meeting was held on March 29 last year in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the presence of the chief ministers of the two states and the agreement was signed.

According to the agreement, in the first phase, six places namely Pilingkata in Dispur Assembly constituency, Hahim of Boko constituency, Gijang and Tarabari, Bakrapara in West Guwahati constituency and Tarasore area of Katigara constituency of Cachar were settled.

This was followed by meetings of regional committees headed by cabinet ministers of the two states again for the remaining six regions. Disputes in Lampi, Barduar and Des Dumaria are on the verge of being resolved on the basis of a recent regional committee report. After this, the border disputes of Block-1, Block-II and Khanduli areas of Karbi Anglong district will remain unchanged. The problem arises because the disputes in these three regions are extremely complex.

Meanwhile, even after the two states signed agreements on the boundary, it has come to light that Meghalaya continues to occupy Assam's land in some places. The situation had recently heated up over Meghalaya people setting up a government water supply centre near Barpathar in Kamrup Metropolitan district.

A section of people from Meghalaya destroyed several houses in Assam soon after the people of Assam blocked the setting up of the centre. In such a situation questions have been raised about the agreement signed by the governments of the two states to settle the boundary dispute.

Three regional committees for six disputed areas

The Assam government has constituted three committees under the chairmanship of ministers Atul Bora, Chandra Mohan Patowary and Pijush Hazarika in Assam for the remaining six disputed areas of Assam-Meghalaya. Similarly, the Meghalaya government has also formed three regional committees.

The committees of the two states have already visited the disputed areas and interacted with the public. Several meetings have also been held. The report has already been submitted in the case of three disputed areas.

Border tension amid dialogue

The incident took place on November 22, 2022, at Mukro on the Assam-Meghalaya border in West Karbi Anglong district as the negotiation process to resolve the border dispute was underway.

Assam and Meghalaya have long claimed that Assam and Meghalaya are their territory in the entire Mukro region filled with precious trees located on the border of the two states. There was a terrible situation over the free plundering of forest resources in this Mukro forest area by the miscreants of Meghalaya.

A total of six people, including a forest guard from Assam and five from the Khasi community of Meghalaya, were killed in the incident. The incident took an even more alarming turn in the future. Incidents like the burning of Assam vehicles took place in Shillong. Connectivity between Assam and Meghalaya was cut off.

There have been several times along the border tense situation before this incident. For decades the people of the border have had to live in fear. The situation on the border has not improved even now.

Six out of the 12 Assam-Meghalaya border disputes have already been resolved but the border tension is yet to subside. The situation had recently heated up over Meghalaya people setting up a government water supply centre near Barpathar in Kamrup Metropolitan district.

A section of people from Meghalaya destroyed several houses in Assam soon after the people of Assam blocked the setting up of the centre. Tension continues in the area over which tension continues.

Assam has border disputes with five states

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has taken special initiatives to resolve the border disputes in the neighbouring states but the border people are not convinced. Because the tense atmosphere on the border still continues.

The problem of border disputes in the neighbouring state of Assam is not new, but the border people of Assam have been suffering from its ill effects for years. According to the data, five states bordering Assam such as Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya are encroaching on more than 83,000 hectares of land.

There are 24 districts of Assam attached to the border. In view of this, the border areas of the state are often raised. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has been taking special initiatives to resolve the boundary dispute after taking over as the head of the government. All the border states of Assam have taken the lead in resolving the border disputes. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma in particular took the initiative to resolve the border issue between the two states.