JCCPA appeals KAAC to convene special session on border issue with Meghalaya

Our Correspondent

Diphu, Sep. 20 (EMN): The Joint Co-ordination Committee for Protection of Autonomy (JCCPA) has appealed the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) authority to convene an all-party meeting and hold a special session and discuss why clause 2.3 of the Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) 2021 should be reviewed and why KAAC areas should be excluded from the ‘Give and Take Policy’ process adopted by the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya.

In this concern, the JCCPA has submitted a memorandum to KAAC, Chief Executive Member, Tuliram Ronghang in Diphu on Tuesday.

The memorandum read: “It needs no further elaboration that because of the incorporation of certain contentious clauses, particularly clause 2.3, the MoS signed on September 4, 2021 was greeted with widespread protests throughout Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong and the conscious section of the indigenous tribes of these particular hill areas are still opposing the clauses.”

As part of the process for mobilising public support to secure the autonomy of the KAAC, JCCPA has organised a seminar on the provisions of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution vis-à-vis clause 2.3 of the MoS on December 18, 2021; and the consensus opinion of the speakers attending the seminar was that “the Sixth Schedule is especially for the specially protected people of the specially specified areas”, i.e.  Tribal Areas within the State of Assam, but the provisions of the Sixth Schedule in Karbi Anglong (bifurcated in 2016) “is not safe”, as under clause 2.3 of the MoS, out of the 44 elective seats of the KAAC, 10 seats have been proposed to be made “open for all” which is totally against the very spirit and purpose of the Sixth Schedule; and if implemented, the interests and rights of the hill tribes proper of Karbi Anglong will definitely be affected adversely. In pursuance of the resolution adopted in the seminar, a memorandum was also submitted for favour your kind consideration and necessary action on Dec. 21, 2021.

The memorandum also said, status quo ante, i.e. as it was in 1951 should be maintained along the boundary between West Karbi Anglong and Meghalaya.

An all-party meeting was also convened under the auspices of the JCCPA on Sep. 7 and discussed the matter seriously.

“Karbi Anglong (bifurcated in 2016), previously called ‘Mikir Hills’, has well-defined valid boundaries; and Block I and II, Khanduli and Pesiar fall right within the valid boundaries of the district. Therefore, the claim of transfer of the areas to Meghalaya is an invalid one, as all stakeholders had agreed to the report of the Commission appointed in 1950 on basis of which the Governor, in exercise of the power conferred under subparagraph three of paragraph 1 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, notified the boundaries of the Mikir Hills Autonomous District (now Karbi Anglong) by a notification dated April 13, 1951. All matters relating to the boundary between the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills District and the Mikir Hills District were resolved in 1951,” the memorandum read.

“There was and is no ‘border dispute’ between Assam’s West Karbi Anglong and Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills and Ri-Bhoi Districts. The dispute is an invented one raised by some vested interest groups of people to destabilise the prevailing peace and tranquility in areas along the border and thus sever the age-old Karbi-Khasi-Jaintia brotherhood.”

The JCCPA also added that the KAAC and the MLAs from Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong should abstain from the Regional Committee to be formed for the purpose; and the boundaries as defined in 1951 should be adhered to as final and binding by all concerned.