SHILLONG, OCT 30: The opposition Congress on Tuesday slammed the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government for its alleged insensitive attitude in dealing with the issue of inter-state boundary dispute despite Assam is engaging itself as an “aggressor”.
“When we see the lukewarm response of the government not being bothered, the home minister is eluding, the chief minister is not giving any statement on this issue, it only proves their insensitivity towards the people of the state beyond any reasonable doubt and that is very dangerous,” Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma told journalists on Tuesday.
Sangma said that he was pain to hear the narratives coming from the ground zero in West Khasi Hills and also in Ri Bhoi District and the manner in which such problems are being handled by the government of the day.
“This shows the complete insensitivity (of the government) and I am afraid the kind of development that is unfolding in West Khasi Hills due to the stand off between the authorities of Assam and the residents of Meghalaya in the border areas,” he added.
The former chief minister also warned that this kind of stand off if allowed may culminate into a law and order problem while citing the 2010 incident at Langpih where precious lives were lost after such tension were allowed to build up.
“I don’t know how many times the chief minister had spoken to his counterpart in regards to this. How many times the chief secretary has been asked to speak to his counterpart in this regard? How many times the district administrations in those respective districts have been asked to update the government of the day? Are these district administrations capable of dealing with their counterparts like it used to be during our time? The DCs and SPs who are supposed to be first responders are they doing their jobs effectively are they being monitored and if it is not being done what are the corrective measures?” he said.
Alleging the Assam government of engaging itself as an aggressor, Sangma said “Friends, it is very dangerous trend. We have collected all the inputs, we are seeing it is happening, there is complete insensitivity and I am afraid this will ultimately result in more and more tension building up along the border. Therefore, the state government has to actively engage themselves with the counterpart.”
Asked, the former chief minister said that Assam has always been an aggressor by engaging in activities which amounts to intent that is not acceptable to the people of the state.
Stating that the Assam is also keeping quite even after Meghalaya government had submitted the documents to support its claim with regards the areas of difference, he said, “It seems after having studied (the documents), they (Assam) understands that Meghalaya is in strong wicket and they decided not to engage in discussion.”
Asking the state government to prevail upon the Assam government for discussion on the matter, Sangma said because enough of time has been given to them to study the documents.
“We must adopt different strategy which is to prevail upon government of Assam to immediately sit again on the basis of all the documents we have submitted over the areas of difference so that people in the border are not subjected to this kind of uncertainty,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Leader of Opposition also urged all political parties from both Assam and Meghalaya to come together and decide collectively on the need to resolve the age old boundary dispute between the states.
“I would urge all political parties to come together and decide once for all from our side and talk to political parties in Assam look you also decide collectively let their be unanimity from your side also let there be unanimity from our side also across all political spectrum as that is the only way out,” he said.
By Our Reporter
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