Guwahati: In presence of Union home minister Amit Shah, both the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya on Tuesday signed an agreement to resolve five decades long border disputes between the two north-eastern States. After signing the settlement agreement in New Delhi, Assam government chief Himanta Bishwa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma emphasized on early resolutions to the inter-State disputes.
“Today is a historic day for the Northeast. Signing of the border dispute agreement between Assam and Meghalaya paves the way to resolve the 50-year-old pending boundary disputes,” said Shah adding that the Centre has taken several steps for ensuring peace, development and conservation of culture under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014. Congratulating both the young chief ministers, Shah expected that they would further work to extend the cooperation between the States.
The border disputes surfaced soon after Meghalaya was carved out from Assam five decades back. Various governments in Dispur and Shillong tried to resolve the 884 kilometres row in earlier occasions too. However, for the first time, both the governments came up with a draft resolution two months back, where Assam agreed to keep 18.51 square km and spare 18.28 sqkm to Meghalaya.
Sarma in his comment, revealed that PM Modi wants to make the Northeast a growth engine for the nation. He hoped that border disputes with other States would also be resolved amicably, as initial
discussions with Mizoram and Nagaland chief ministers had already started. Sarma also informed that he had discussed with Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu recently and drawn a road map to settle the disputes with them.
