A joint meeting of the regional committees from Meghalaya and Assam will be held in July to discuss the boundary dispute in regards to the four sectors under Ri Bhoi district even as Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong maintained that the government is committed to seeking retransferring of Block I and Block II to Meghalaya.
After chairing a meeting of the panel, Tynsong told reporters that the regional committees of both states will have a joint meeting in July.
“We will fix a joint meeting with the regional committee from our counterpart Assam and thereafter once the joint meeting is held then we will again go to the spot jointly and then take a final call on this issue,” he said.
He said as far as Ri Bhoi district is concerned, there are four sectors - Borduar, Nongwah-Mawtamur, Deshdoomreah, Block-II where the two regional committees need to sit down and discuss and then take decision on whatever is necessary to be done.
Stating that the same criteria will be adopted while finding a solution to resolve the dispute, Tynsong said, “People’s willingness is also a part of the guidelines of this committee. Therefore, guidelines have been in place since the last phase so even this second phase the same criteria is adopted.”
He said that the government has all documents to substantiate its claim over the four sectors adding, “That is why we will sit down without counterpart and discuss across the table and we will go down to the village level and take a final decision on that.”
On the demand to retransfer all villages under Block II back to Meghalaya, deputy chief minister said if you talk about Block I and Block II, it is a question of retransferring but some people misunderstand this.
“When you talk about Block-I and Block-II please understand that the question of differences does not arise, the question of dispute does not arise, it is purely the question of retransferring back those Block-I and Block-II on the basis of the notification 1951, we placed before the government of Assam to kindly retransfer it to us in those areas where the population is maximum with our own people,” he said.
Further, Tynsong said after 50 years of statehood, it is only the MDA government, which has taken a firm decision to resolve the long pending boundary dispute with Assam.
An MoU was also signed with Assam resolving six areas of difference under the first phase of border talks.
On the opposition against the MoU, Tynsong said, “The first phase we have done it, yes, so many portions of Meghalaya population they said yes you have done the right thing but again some of them say no, government has done nothing and government has damaged and government has sold our land or surrendered our counterpart Assam but whatever I am telling you, we are doing this for the best interest of the next generation of our state so we will go ahead no matter what but we will go ahead with it.”
