Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma are scheduled to meet here on Wednesday to hold further discussions on resolving border disputes between the two states in six remaining areas. The chief ministers of both the states are also likely to visit the disputed areas later as a goodwill gesture, officials said.
Meghalaya was carved out of Assam as a separate state in 1972 and it had challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971, leading to disputes in 12 areas of the 884.9 km long border between the two states. Sarma on assuming the Chief Minister’s office in May, 2021 had announced that his priority was to resolve long-standing boundary disputes with neighbouring states.
Subsequently, three regional Committees were set up in August 2021 to resolve the issues in a phased manner.
The regional committees submitted their recommendations which were handed over to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi by the two chief ministers, followed by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on March 29, 2022 to resolve disputes in six of the 12 areas.
According to the agreement, 36.79 sq km of disputed area was taken up for settlement in the first phase with Assam getting full control of 18.51 sq km and Meghalaya over 18.28 sq km of land.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI)