New Delhi: In a significant milestone, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma signed an agreement in New Delhi on Tuesday to resolve the 50-year-old border dispute between the two northeastern states in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah.
“I want to thank Amit Shah for giving us the direction to resolve the border disputes. Today, the first phase of the resolution has been done. It could only be possible because of Himanta Biswa Sarma,” Sangma said soon after signing the agreement.
Earlier he had said there had been “a lot of push” from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah to resolve the differences between the two states.
“If India and Bangladesh can resolve the border issues then why can’t the two states — the is the stand the Centre has taken,” he said.
Taking to Twitter, Shah called the signing of the interstate boundary settlement a “historic day” for the northeast.
“Today, a 50-year-old pending boundary dispute between Assam and Meghalaya has been resolved. 6 out of 12 points of the dispute has been resolved, which comprises nearly 70% of the boundary. The remaining 6 points will be resolved at the earliest”, Shah was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
When Meghalaya was created from Assam in 1972, it prompted a long-running land conflict. Different interpretations of the demarcation of boundaries in the initial agreement for the foundation of the new state resulted in border disputes.
The two CMs allegedly conducted a final round of talks with the MHA before signing the deal.
On January 31, the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya submitted a draught resolution to Shah for review and consideration by the MHA. The administrations of Assam and Meghalaya have drafted a resolution to settle their border disputes in six of the 12 “areas of disagreement” along the 884-kilometer frontier.
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