CM says SC order on MoU was expected

SHILLONG, JAN 7: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday said the Supreme Court’s order which stayed the Meghalaya High Court’s interim order staying the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Assam and Meghalaya was as per the expectation of the government.

Sangma told reporters that the government was very clear that the interim order of the Meghalaya High Court will be stayed by the Supreme Court.

“We have approached the Supreme Court and as expected the Supreme court had stayed it. It has gone as per the expectation that we had,” he said.

On Friday, the Supreme Court had stayed the Meghalaya High Court’s order relating to the operation of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Assam and Meghalaya with regards to physical demarcation and erection of boundary posts between the two states.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala issued notice to the respondents in the appeal filed by State of Meghalaya and listed the case for further hearing after two weeks.

“Prima facie, the single-judge has not furnished any reason for the interim order, and whether the MoUs will require parliamentary approval is a distinct issue. But the interim order staying the MoU was not warranted. Thus, the interim order of the single-judge is hereby stayed,” the Court ordered.

On the other hand, the chief minister said that the second phase of border talks is moving in its own manner.

“We had a lot of challenges in the past. Hence, we have to smoothen out those challenges and those incidents that had happened until and unless we are not able to move forward from that, we will not be able to take this discussion forward,” he said.

Referring to the November 22, 2022 Mukroh firing incident as a major setback to the border talks between the two states, Sangma however said, “But that does not mean that the talks will stop, it does not mean that we will not further pursue the border issue.”

Assuring that his government is committed to pursue the border talks with Assam, the chief minister said, “We will pursue it and we will take it to the logical conclusion, it is only the NPP, it is only this particular government that has taken the initiatives in the last 50 years to really find a realistic solution.”

“We have done it for the first phase and we are very hopeful that given the mandate and given the opportunity by the people of our state, we will be able to solve this in the next term,” he added.

By Our Reporter