Assam & Meghalaya to Hold Border Talks on Remaining Areas of Disputes in October

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma announced that discussions to resolve border issues in the remaining six areas of differences with Assam will be held in the first or second week of October.

This was stated by the Chief Minister while replying to a zero-hour notice presented by VPP MLA Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit from Nongkrem during the Assembly session on Wednesday, reports said.

On the other hand, Sangma revealed that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently visited Shillong for a function and held private meetings with him concerning border issues. According to Sangma, during this meeting, several decisions were made and they intend to formalize these decisions during the forthcoming official meeting in October.

Further, the two chief ministers also reportedly have plans to visit Khanduli and other areas to convey messages of peace. However, the exact locations of these visits are yet to be confirmed.

In July this year, the Regional Committees of Assam and Meghalaya met in Guwahati’s Koinadhora and submitted their reports on the long pending border issue between the two states. During the meeting, discussions were held regarding the border issues in three regions of Kamrup (Metro) and Kamrup districts.   

Notably, the regional committees had jointly visited six conflict-ridden areas between Assam and Meghalaya.

Three regional committees of both states were directed to start visiting the six remaining areas of dispute out of the 12 areas of differences for multiple stakeholder consultations and fact-finding.

However, Assam and Meghalaya have identified 12 disputed areas along the 884.9-km-long interstate border. These two northeastern neighbours, which started the first round of discussions in July 2021, signed an MoU to resolve differences in six areas in March last year in New Delhi in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Also Read: Regional Committees of Assam & Meghalaya Meet to Discuss Border Dispute