Guwahati, May 24 (). The Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya held a second round of meeting on Wednesday to resolve the unresolved inter-state boundary dispute in the remaining six areas along the 884.9 km-long border between the two northeastern states.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K. Sangma had signed an MoU on March 29 last year in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to settle six of the 12 disputed areas in the first phase.
Sarma and Sangma along with their colleague ministers and senior officials at a meeting in Guwahati on Wednesday decided to initiate the process to resolve the border dispute in the remaining six areas.
The Chief Minister of Assam said that in the second half of June, the Chief Ministers of both the states will visit Karbi Anglong and West Jaintia Hills districts, where some unrest is going on, as a goodwill gesture.
He said, the regional committees of both the states will visit all the six disputed areas and talk to the border people and all stakeholders before submitting their reports to the respective chief ministers. He said that the states would work in the spirit of long standing friendship between Assam and Meghalaya to resolve the differences.
Sarma said the meeting did not fix any time frame or period to resolve the disputes as the situation in the remaining six disputed areas was complex. These six disputed areas are adjacent to the territory of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council and the opinion of the Council is very important in this regard.
The Chief Minister of Meghalaya said that differences in the remaining six areas would be resolved through mutual trust and confidence through the process of dialogue.
In the month of July, I and the Chief Minister of Assam along with other ministers and officials will meet again to review the progress of the initiative, Sangma told the media. He said that with the support of the central government and various other agencies, both the states would be able to move forward to resolve the disputes on the borders.
“Also, we have asked the Survey of India to continue with their survey work and complete their surveys in the six areas of divergence,” he said.
The meeting was attended by Assam Ministers Atul Bora and Pijush Hazarika and Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Preston Tyansong and Minister Snewbhalang Dhar, Chief Secretaries and senior officials from both the states.
Assam Chief Minister and his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart Pema Khandu last month signed an agreement in New Delhi to settle long-pending disputes along the over 800 km inter-state border in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
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