Shillong, Sept 7: The HYC on Wednesday condemned the ‘high-handed attitude of the NPP and its attempt to divide the people of Meghalaya for electoral gains.
In a statement, the HYC general secretary Roy Kupar Synrem said that the arrogance of the NPP is becoming clear every single day and pointed out the statement of NPP state president and Rajya Sabha MP WR Kharlukhi.
Kharlukhi had said, “Whoever does not want to solve the border issue can vote for the opposition and whoever wants to solve it can vote for us. We don’t want the affected people to suffer forever.”
According to HYC, it is a laughable irony because, not only did the NPP sell away Meghalaya’s land, they are now trying to polarise people on the issue of border settlement.
“The state president of NPP should know for a fact that neither the people of the state nor the affected residents, the affected Himas are against the border settlement but what we are against is the manner in which the settlement is arrived at. The NPP- led government did not take into confidence the main stakeholders that is the Hima Khasi and the District Councils. The owners of the land which the Conrad Sangma-led govt gave away in the first phase are the Hima Khasi and without their consent how can he or the government decided to just give away the land to Assam”, the HYC said.
“It is also evident from the documents we have in our possession, even the reports and the opinions of the Regional Committees especially West Khasi Hills and Ri Bhoi Districts were not taken into consideration by Conrad Sangma while signing the MOU. As a result of which in the first phase we lost about 18 sq km of land belonging to Hima Khasi and was given away to Assam. The land lost does not belong to NPP or any political party for that matter, it belonged to the people of Meghalaya in general and the Himas/land owners in particular. So the NPP or any party cannot act like an absolute owner over the land and take a unilateral decision”, Synrem said, adding that this is the reason why the entire state of Meghalaya is against the MOU signed between Conrad Sangma and the Chief Minister of Assam as evident from the protests of affected people and the affected Himas including the social organisations, to the point that the Himas even approached the Supreme Court seeking justice.
