Assam-Meghalaya ministers meet to resolve border disputes

Silchar (Assam), Oct. 10 (PTI): Top ministers from Assam and Meghalaya met in an attempt to thrash out a resolution to the long-standing border dispute between the two neighbouring states at Ratacherra village in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills.

The meeting, held on Saturday was attended by Assam Industry and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patwary and Meghalaya’s Home Minister Lakhmen Rymbui, among others, an official release said.

During the meeting, both the sides laid down procedures for resolving the border dispute, the release added.

Later Patwary said the meeting was successful and both the sides exchanged relevant documents. However, no conclusion was reached and the next meeting on the issue will be held in Shillong, the release added.

Meghalaya’s Minister Rymbui also termed the meeting as fruitful and added that the next meeting will be held in October itself, it said.

In addition, present at the meeting were the deputy commissioners of Cachar and East Jaintia Hills districts, the Superintendent of Police of Cachar and MLAs Khalil Uddin (Assam) and Shitlang Pale (Meghalaya), among others.

Another team of ministers from the two states had also conducted a joint inspection of the inter-state border areas near Guwahati on Saturday.

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

The chief ministers of the two states have held two rounds of talks since July at the end of which it was decided to set up two regional committees to resolve the vexed border dispute in a phased manner.