ACA appeals to withdraw ‘give and take’ policy

DIPHU — Ahoi Cheraikom Amei (ACA), a border protection forum, has demanded the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) authority to convene a special session for adopting resolution against the “give and take” policy particularly on Block-I and II of West Karbi Anglong and to withdraw from the regional committee, which was headed by minister, Piyush Hazarika.

A memorandum was also submitted to the chief executive member (CEM) of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC), Tuliram Ronghang, regarding protection of border land of West Karbi Anlgong along the inter-state border with Meghalaya.

Briefing media persons, ACA advisor, Welcome Teron, said that ACA is an organisation of citizens of Block-I & II with the main purpose to protect the territorial integrity of Karbi Anglong especially Block-I & II.

Teron stated that there is a persistent demand from Meghalaya to transfer Block-I & II claiming that the two blocks originally belong to Jaintia hills which was merged with the newly created Mikir Hills (now Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong) in 1951.

Teron said “Our counter argument is that we have no issue with Meghalaya as far as the border issue is concerned.  We have not seen any border problems because in 1951 a notification was issued clearly demarcating the constitutional border lines and if this border line is accepted by both sides then there will be no border problems at all.”

He alleged that some vested interest people from Meghalaya have raised the issue ultimately resulting in lot of misunderstanding and bad blood between the two tribal communities, which has a long history of living together in peaceful co-existence.

He added that with the announcement of ‘give and take’ policy, people of the border areas both Pnar and Karbis are living in constant fear because of frequent clashes between these two communities resulting in the loss of lives and properties.

Convenor of ACA, Longsing Bey, said that when the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council can convene a special session on the border issue, why not the KAAC convene.

“The ACA covers four Member of Autonomous Council (MAC) constituencies i.e. Chinthong, Amri, Socheng and Amreng. We are demanding that a special session be convened by KAAC to take a strong resolution for the protection of border land. We would be very pleased to CEM Ronghang if he can speak out strongly that as per 1951 government notification even an inch of land of West Karbi Anglong cannot be given to others,” Bey said.

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