Meghalaya-Assam official talks on border row to begin soon: Conrad Sangma

Shillong (Meghalaya): Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday said that the official talks with Assam on the remaining six areas of border disputes will begin soon this year.

"We will try to initiate talks as soon as possible. Communication has already started but officially, we will try to work it out in April or May," Sangma said while speaking to the media on Tuesday.

He said talks would kickstart as soon as the regional committees discuss the details. Both states had signed a historic agreement in the national capital to resolve their 50-year-old pending boundary difference in March last year.

The agreement was signed by the Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Assam and Meghalaya two months after a draft resolution was submitted by the Chief Ministers of both states to Shah on January 31 for examination and consideration by the MHA.

The governments of Assam and Meghalaya had come up with a draft resolution to resolve their border disputes in six of the 12 "areas of difference" along the 884-km boundary. According to the proposed recommendations for the 36.79 square km of land, Assam will keep 18.51 square km and give the remaining 18.28 square km to Meghalaya.

The long-standing land dispute was sparked in 1972 when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam. The border issues came as a result of different readings of the demarcation of boundaries in the initial agreement for the new state's creation.

(ANI)