Shillong, Oct 10: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today appealed to citizens on both sides of the Assam-Meghalaya border to allow the governments to engage in dialogue to resolve the long-standing dispute.
The appeal comes a day after fresh clashes between two groups of people from both sides resulted in the death of one person in Lapangap village falling under West Jaintia Hills district.
The incident occurred despite efforts by both state governments to restrain their populations from engaging aggressively.
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“Both the police were restraining their own population, to not be aggressive and to cool down and to allow the entire process to be done in a very peaceful manner but while that restraining was going on, the crowd size increased, and there was a scuffle between two groups of people from both sides and during the scuffle one person lost his life,” he said.
He also clarified that the incident was a result of a public-to-public scuffle, with no involvement of enforcement agencies. “Besides, there was no lethal action that was taken,” he added.
The Chief Minister appealed to the citizens to cooperate with the governments’ efforts to find a peaceful solution to the dispute.
“We are appealing to our citizens from both sides to allow the governments to engage and talk and whatever problems are there locally if the people cooperate and talk to each other we will be able to resolve it…,” he stated.
Highlighting the progress made so far in resolving the border dispute, he informed that six out of twelve areas of differences have been resolved.
“…for the last 52 years no government has taken this initiative. It is only during our time that we took the initiative and resolved six locations and six more are left and we are working towards that (to finding a peaceful solution to resolve the dispute),” he added.
He also explained the approach taken by the state governments of Assam and Meghalaya to resolve the dispute, which involves engaging with the local people and taking into account their voices and will. “In the past 52 years, 27 meetings (were held) at the CM and CS levels and during those meetings in the past ‘we will maintain the status quo’ was the decision that was taken in every meeting. So, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma and myself had taken a very clear decision along with the Centre government that we will not have this status quo basis of meeting anymore. If we meet, we will meet with some concrete solutions,” he said, adding “We went with a very open mind and expanded the horizons of discussion… We involved the local people, public hearings took place, and people were asked whether they would like to be in Meghalaya or Assam. This has never happened as normally governments would decide sitting in a room but we actually engage with the people of the area and both state governments and leaders were broad minded to accept the will of the people and that is how we moved forward in those six locations.”
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He announced that the governments have decided to also take the people’s will into consideration for resolving the remaining six areas of differences. “We are trying to do the same in the other six locations and we are engaging with the people. We are having sub-committees that meet the local people regularly. We have public hearings but it is not so simple. What could not be solved for 52 years, we are trying our best to engage,” he said while reiterating that his stand is very clear “we are not here to bulldoze”.
(Newmai News Network)
