Lanong told reporters that during the time of former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and former Meghalaya chief minister EK Mawlong, both have tried their best (to resolve the boundary issue) but they don’t rush for settlement without taking everyone into confidence.
“But what we have seen this time is that the government on its own have gone ahead to settle the issue without taking everyone into confidence and that brought a lot of dissatisfaction, disappointment leading to the incidents that followed thereafter,” he said.
Lanong was referring to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Meghalaya and Assam on March 29,last year which ended the dispute in six out of the twelve areas of difference shared between the two states.
He asserted that credit should go to the people who really solved the issue in a manner that everybody accepts.
“You cannot just solve the issue on mere whims and fancies to say that they have failed, we succeed. There has been no such success, it is full of dissatisfaction and full of disappointment as many people are still not happy and all that,” Lanong added.
Stating that Assam is flexing its muscles because the BJP government is in power out there, the former deputy chief minister said, “They are encroaching every day. They are encroaching into places which are very much in Meghalaya.”
He added that in 2013, many villages from Umroi have been tagged with Mawhati and those villages also now are being claimed by Assam.
Lanong further informed that he had proposed in a motion moved in the recently held district council’s session that they should consider two-three angles while resolving the border dispute.
“One they should look into the original documents, maps and all that, to find out in those disputed areas, who in the past originally occupied, settled, worked, cultivated. Two, they will see what is the present position today whether those areas are in whose position, who are the people who are occupying the areas as of today and thirdly, they can have a little more dialogue also between both the states of Meghalaya and Assam and if you find that wherever people of Assam, the public belonging to Assam government and settled for a long time in a disputed area and vice versa – if the people of Meghalaya’s Khasi Hills, they have settled there for a long time till now – they can consider from that angle and in the spirit of gift and take, they can always settled the issue,” he opined.
“Such were the factors, issues and the considerations that these two governments can take up based on these two-three factors not like this like what they have done a few months ago, without proper consulting the traditional institutions, without looking into the history especially, the originality of the issue – who were the first people who had live in those disputed areas, who had occupied from the beginning in those disputed areas – all these issues have to be taken up, discus properly and finally you come up with a solution,” Lanong added.
Apart from the boundary dispute issue, the UDP leader said that the state is in shambles.
“You talk of employment, you talk of economy, you talk of development in general, everything in shambles,” he said.
By Our Reporter
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