Assam-Meghalaya Border Dispute: CMs of two states signed MoU in presence of HM Amit Shah

Assam & Meghalaya CMs sign MoU at MHA in Delhi ending 50-year long border disputes

A historic occasion for the people of Assam & Meghalaya as the Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma signed MoU with the Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad K Sangma in the presence of Home Minister of India Amit Shah to resolve the 50-year-old boundary issue in 6 areas of difference and all are confident to resolve the remaining 6 areas too soon.

Assam-Meghalaya sign a Historic agreement to solve 50 years old dispute

After signing the Mou Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma stated that "this is a milestone in our collective efforts to strengthen cooperative federalism. Together, we’re committed to resolve all such legacy boundary issues very soon."

Speaking during the event here at the North Block, Union Home Minister Shah, while congratulating the two Chief Ministers and people of the two states, said, “I am happy that both the parties agreed to resolve the 50-year-old dispute. This agreement is in line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wants to make the North-East of India prosperous and secure.”

Mr Shah called it a "historic day" and credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for focussing on the peace process in the northeast, and also its culture and development.

The Home Minister further said that though the two states have agreed to resolve six of the 12 points of border dispute, “it is heartening to note that in terms of geographical spread, it covers 70 percent of the area”. He went on to add that the rest of the points of difference would be resolved soon.

On the other hand, Mr Conrad Sangma Chief Minister of Meghalaya, thanked the Home Minister and also credited the development to Mr Sarma. "Today the first phase of the resolution has been done. It could only be possible because of Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma," he said.

The Meghalaya Chief Minister added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah gave the necessary push to resolve the long-pending border dispute between Assam and Meghalaya.

"There has been a lot of push from Prime Minister and Home Minister that they would like to see that these differences (Assam-Meghalaya border issue) are resolved because if India and Bangladesh can resolve the border issues then why can't the states also. This is the stand they took," said Mr Sangma.

On January 31, the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya had submitted a draft resolution to the Union Home Minister Shah for examination and consideration by the MHA, which comprised of six of the 12 “areas of difference” along the 884-kilometre boundary.

Assam will keep 18.51 square kilometres of land, and will give Meghalaya 18.28 square kilometres of land, according to the MoU signed for the 36.79 square kilometres of land.

The  dispute was sparked in 1972 when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam which resulted in different readings of the demarcation of boundaries in the initial agreement for the new state's creation.

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