Shillong, July 23: Assam and Meghalaya have decided to go beyond the status quo to resolve the age-old boundary dispute between both the states.
As there is an urgency to settle the issue, both the chief ministers will meet again on August 6 in Guwahati.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma discussed the border issue in the city on Friday and examined relevant papers.
“Today’s discussion was very fruitful as we appreciate each other’s position. We also come to a common understanding that now we need to travel beyond the status quo,” Himanta said.
He said earlier whenever both the chief ministers met they used to give a joint statement that both the states have agreed to maintain status quo.
“However this time, what we are going to say to the people of Meghalaya and Assam is that we are firm and we are committed to resolve this dispute,” he added.
He said both the chief ministers are willing to visit 12 sites to appreciate each other’s position and “by the grace of God and by the blessings of both the states – people of Assam and people of Meghalaya – I am convinced that we will be able to resolve this dispute.”
Approach to border issue
To a question, Assam Chief Minister said that a particular boundary with a particular village may be now in Assam but it may not be part of Assam territory in reality as Assam might think that this village is something else.
“In those issues we have to appreciate each other’s position and whenever boundary needs to redraw, we have to redraw. So, you can mention redrawing as give and take or you can interpret redrawing differently, so it is upto the assessment – there may be a give and take and if we don’t like the word give and take we can say that we will redraw the boundary or whatever,” Himanta said.
