Mooshahary willing to play mediator role

SHILLONG, JUNE 6: Outgoing governor RS Mooshahary indicated his willingness to don the role of a “mediator” between Meghalaya and Assam to resolve decades old boundary dispute between the two neighbouring states as the issue had created fissures and the problem has eluded solution despite innumerous meeting between the chief ministers, chief secretaries and other officials of the two states.

Just before his departure to Guwahati along with his family members from the Shillong Raj Bhavan on Saturday morning, Mooshahary told reporters that he is willing to be a mediator between the two neighbouring north eastern states to resolve the boundary issue which has been eluding solution for almost four decades.

Officially Mooshahary will be demitting office of the Meghalaya governor on Monday afternoon once the Governor designate Krishan Kant Paul is sworn in by Meghalaya high court chief justice T Meena Kumari.

Answering a query on the long pending boundary dispute between Assam and Meghalaya, Mooshahary told reporters, “Why not suggest to them that the outgoing governor should mediate? This is the suggestion I can give you.”

Speaking about the cascading effect of the happenings in Assam to other north eastern states, Mooshahary said, Assam is the “mother state” in the region and added, “What happens in Assam has an impact elsewhere. Even now we feel that impact.”

Giving an example Mooshahary said the frequent bandh in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) area, from where he hails, and connects the Northeast to Bengal and the rest of India affects the entire region. On last count he informed that there were up to 90 bandhs in a year affecting the entire north eastern region.

ILP: Speaking about the effectiveness of introducing ILP to combat influx and entry of illegal migrants into Meghalaya,Mooshahary said that ILP had been tested earlier but failed. Saying that Meghalaya already has an inbuilt system of the land tenure system in place to ensure that outsiders do not get the opportunity to buy land and settle here permanently, he said that those who comes to the state are here to work either in the mines or to do business and besides that they cannot change the demographic as they cannot buy land and settle here. He felt that ILP will only breed corruption and was very confident that if officials of the state and district councils are honest, influx can be controlled with the present mechanism available.

Law & Order : Mooshahary, however, said he is worried about the insurgency problem in Garo hills and the rise of crimes against women.  He said, “There are certain things that I am little worried especially the situation in Garo hills. When I came here, it had showed some improvement, but after sometime, it again became serious.”

Mooshhary also said that the increase in crimes against women where the number of rape cases have been reported is serious concern. He said, “Unfortunately, most of these crimes have been committed by the relatives of the victims. This is a trend that needs to be checked by the civil society and by the members of the family. Police alone cannot check these types of crimes,” he added.

Finally, Mooshahary parting advice to the Meghalaya government, was that its primary duty is to govern, and that too, to govern effectively in order to make it difficult for people to do wrong, and to make it easy for people to do right.” By Our Reporter