Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday reiterated his government's commitment to successful peace process with the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), an insurgent group in the state and said he met the home secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in Delhi to discuss the issue.
"Following the required process to take forward the peace talks with HNLC, met the Home Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs to discuss the same. The Government of Meghalaya is committed to see this through," Sangma captioned a picture of him with the home secretary that he posted on Twitter.
Before leaving for Delhi on Tuesday to take up with the Centre the recent peace offer made by the HNLC, Sangma told journalists in Shillong on Monday that the process is in an advanced stage, and the state government has shortlisted the names of people for appointment as an interlocutor.
“Once we formally communicate and get a signal from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) we will take the next step forward,” he had said.
On February 9, the HNLC had sent its official communication to the state government reiterating its readiness for peace dialogue without preconditions.
“As of now we are ready to talk within the ambit of the Indian Constitution and we are ready to have talks without any preconditions. This is for the general information that the Standstill Agreement (SA) and Instrument of Accession (IOA) shall not be included. If the Government of India (GOI) is willing then we are ready to go for a dialogue,” HNLC general secretary-cum-publicity secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw had said in a statement on February 8.
Meanwhile, the chief minister also met other Central leaders and said that he had sought the support of the Centre for setting up an Ornamental Aqua Park with an aquarium for over 250 endemic fish species of Northeast in Meghalaya with technical collaboration with the UAE.
"Sought the support of @DrSJaishankar Ji & the Ministry of External Affairs for the proposed set up of a state of the art Ornamental Aqua Park with an aquarium for over 250 endemic fish species of NE in Meghalaya with technical collaboration with the United Arab Emirates (UAE)," Sangma tweeted.
In another tweet, the chief minister said: "Met the Hon’ble Union Minister for Minority Affairs Sh. @naqvimukhtar Ji today. Thanked him for accepting our proposal to set up a unique Medical Skill Development Centre in Meghalaya & invited him to join us to lay foundation for the project".
