Assam, Meghalaya committees meet on Aug 26 to discuss border issue

Shillong: The regional committees of Assam and Meghalaya will meet here on August 26 ahead of their joint visit to disputed Langpih along the interstate border, Meghalaya Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh said on Monday.

“Both the committees will be meeting here this August 26 as we prepare to go to ground zero and meet the people in the area,” Lyngdoh told PTI.

In the last meeting in Guwahati, the regional committees of the two states had jointly agreed to visit Langpih in Meghalaya's West Khasi Hills district to meet stakeholders, local representatives and residents before finalising the interstate border.

Lyngdoh heads one of the three regional committees from Meghalaya.

Both Meghalaya and Assam lay claims to the Langpih area and four people were shot dead there in 2010 at the height of the interstate dispute in the area.

According to Lyngdoh, the regional committee from Assam had also expressed its “receptiveness” to the proposal that villages which are identified as problem free and where residents are inclined to be in Meghalaya will be allowed to remain with it.

The two neighbouring states had signed an MoU in Delhi in March last year to formally resolve interstate disputes in six areas of differences between the two states.

The six areas of differences include Langpih in West Khasi Hills district and Mukroh in Block II of West Jaintia Hills where six died in violence last year.