Assam-Meghalaya border dispute settled in 6 sites, 6 to go: Sangma

Assam and Meghalaya have agreed to resolve their boundary disputes in six locations and are ready to find solutions to six other such areas soon, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said on Wednesday.

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 locations along the two states' 884.9-km-long border.

Sangma said the two states were making efforts to resolve the disputes.

"Assam and Meghalaya have held discussions related to six locations and came to an understanding on them," he told reporters in New Delhi.

Sangma, along with his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, had met Union Home Minister last month and apprised him about the outcome of their discussions.

Sangma said they have submitted a report to the central government and he was hopeful that the Centre will invite both the states soon.

"When we will come, we will certainly resolve the differences on these six locations.

"Our effort is that we will resolve the differences on the remaining six locations before the 75th anniversary of India's independence," he said.

Sources said Assam and Meghalaya governments came to a consensus on the villages and identified natural boundaries such as rivers and forests.

There are 36 villages in the six places, covering an area of 36.79 sq km where an agreement has been reached.

Three committees each were formed by the two states in August last year after two rounds of talks between Sarma and Sangma were held to resolve the vexed border dispute in a phased manner.    

According to the joint final set of recommendations given by the committees, out of 36.79 sq km disputed area taken up for settlement in the first phase, Assam will be getting full control of 18.51 sq km area and Meghalaya of 18.28 sq km.

Out of the 12 points of disputes between Assam and Meghalaya, the six areas with relatively less critical differences were taken up in the first phase.

The boundary disputes between Assam and Meghalaya have been going on for 50 years and resolving it was a difficult task but due to the efforts made by the two states, a solution is expected to be arrived at soon.