Newmai News Network
Shillong: Regarding the border disputes, the regional committees of Meghalaya and Assam today decided to conduct a joint visit to villages under the Langpih sector in September after the Assembly sessions in the two states.
The decision was taken at the second round of meeting of the regional committee for West Khasi Hills led by Meghalaya cabinet minister Paul Lyngdoh and regional committee of Kamrup district led by Assam cabinet minister Chandra Mohan Patowary held at Pinewood hotel here.
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Addressing the media, Lyngdoh said the meeting narrowed down the areas of conflict or areas where both States have made claims and counterclaims.
“The members of the district council (MDCs) and deputy commissioners of both the States have been tasked with the responsibility of preparing a list and coming up with specific names (of villages, which are problem-free) in the next meeting, when we undertake the joint inspection,” he said.
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The chairman of the regional committee for West Khasi Hills, said after this, the two regional committees will meet to conduct a joint onsite visit to villages under Langpih sector in the month of September, after the end of the Assembly sessions in the two States.
“We will try to cater to four or five villages and choose a central point as the meeting point so that we can go for site visits in the month of September,” he said.
Lyngdoh said, “We cannot be specific because these matters are hyper sensitive and we don’t want needless controversies and we don’t want any groups with vested interests to then take advantage of the discussion because the discussions are ongoing.”
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Terming the joint meeting very cordial and fruitful, the chairman of the regional committee for the Kamrup district sector, Chandra Mohan Patowary informed that both States exchanged documents as far as their claims over villages in the Langpih sector.
“We had a very cordial discussion today and we have narrowed down the gap,” he said.
Whether Langpih would be difficult to resolve, the Assam minister said, “It will be resolved, don’t worry. There is no issue which cannot be solved through discussion. After discussion, every problem is solved. So I don’t think it will be a problem for us to solve. We have started the discussion and we hope we will resolve it.”
He then urged the cooperation of everybody to ensure that the regional committees come up with a solution that is acceptable to both Meghalaya and Assam.