Meghalaya's border with Assam closely watched: CM Sangma

Shillong, Sep 20: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today informed the House that the border areas with Assam are “under close watch” to ensure law and order is not breached.

Replying to a Zero Hour notice tabled by Ardent Basiawmoit from the Voice of People’s Party, Sangma said the police put on high alert and are conducting regular patrolling, meeting village elders and the public and urging them to maintain peace.

Sangma said the government is working tirelessly to maintain peace and harmony in these border areas and also trying to resolve the border disputes with its Assam counterpart.

Stating that in any given situation differences and confrontation should not escalate and amicable solutions must be arrived at through talks and dialogue and not confrontation.

Underling mutual trust as important, Sangma said officials from Assam and Meghalaya are working closely with each other so that people are not harmed in these areas.

In the recent breakdown of law and order in Khanduli, the CM gave a brief detail of the incident and said on 17th April this year the public from Khanduli proceeded to the entry tax gate erected by the Karbi Anglong district council and uprooted it.

He said the incident resulted in a major law and order breakdown and the police and district administration officials rushed to the site to ascertain the circumstances that led to the breakdown of the law and order.

The incident resulted in the ban of cross-border movement of people from both sides and people from both sides were further prevented from engaging in agricultural activities. However, due to the efforts of officials and other stakeholders from both sides, the situation has normalised.

Several meetings were held at different levels which included police, district administration officials and student leaders from both sides. In one such meeting, a student leader from Karbi Anglong gave a provocative statement to the media and he was promptly rebuked by a Minister from the Assam government.

Thereafter the student leaders from Jaintia Hills and Karbi Anglong formed a peace committee with the sole purpose that peace and harmony of the people residing in these border areas would not be allowed to be disturbed.

Moreover, the Meghalaya government has deployed a sufficient number of security forces to deal with the law and order in the area deploying personnel from the armed branch and SF-10 of Meghalaya police.

During Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s recent visit to Shillong, the issue of Khanduli was discussed and many important decisions were taken which would be formalised in October during the second phase of the border talks with Assam to be held in Guwahati, Sangma informed the House.