Shillong, Aug 3: Days before the second round of talks between the Chief Ministers of Meghalaya and Assam, over the long pending boundary dispute, the opposition Congress has said that negotiations should be based on the documentation prepared when the Congress was in power to substantiate the state’s claims to the 12 areas of differences.
‘Substantive compilation of the records enabled us to create an exhaustive documentation to substantiate and reinforce and justify our claim over those villages which fall under areas of differences in the inter-state border with Assam,†Dr. Sangma said.
According to the leader of the opposition, the exhaustive documentation prepared by the then government was submitted to Assam in the Chief Minister level meeting when he was the Chief Minister.
It may be mentioned that Dr. Sangma had twice participated in the Chief Ministerial level meeting once when Late Tarun Gogoi was the Chief Minister and later during the tenure of Sarbananda Sonowal.
The leader of opposition informed that after Meghalaya submitted the documents on the 12 areas of differences Assam asked for time to study it.
Dr. Sangma also said that the discussion to resolve the decades long boundary dispute must ensure that the interest of the people of the state are taken care of.
“The discussion that can be arrived at to resolve the issue must be based on what is acceptable to our people,†he said.
The leader of opposition also alleged that the state government is not implementing the Inter State Border Area Development Programme initiated during his time.
“The present government is so bankrupt in understanding the problem of our people who are residing in the border areas that they have not given due recognition and attention to this initiative,†he said.
The second round of Chief Minister’s level talks will be held on August 6 at Guwahati. Round one of the talks was held in Shillong on July 23.
