MHA calls meeting to finalise Assam-Meghalaya border pact on March 29; CMs asked to be present

Shillong, March 25

The Ministry for Home Affairs (MHA) has fixed March 29 to finalise the border agreement signed between Assam and Meghalaya in January to settle the dispute in six of the 12 areas of difference, an official said on Friday.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, along with senior officials of the two North-eastern neighbours, were asked to be in the national capital for the meeting.

“We have received a formal communication from the MHA about the meeting on finalising the border agreement on March 29 in New Delhi. The CMs and border committee officials of both states have been asked to be prepared for the tripartite meeting,” an official of the Meghalaya Chief Minister’s Office here told PTI.

The meeting was earlier scheduled to be held on March 27 but it was postponed by two days.

The chief ministers of Meghalaya and Assam signed a memorandum of understanding at Guwahati on January 29 to resolve the boundary dispute in six locations – Tarabari, Gizang, Hahim, Boklapara, Khanapara-Pillangkata and Ratacherra – in the first phase. It was then sent to the MHA for examination.

Meghalaya was carved out of Assam as a separate state in 1972 and it had challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971, leading to disputes related to 12 areas in different parts of the shared 884.9 km long border.

The boundary between the two states has witnessed flare-ups several times. In one such incident in 2010, four persons were killed in police firing at Langpih, one of the 12 areas of difference.