Assam and Meghalaya have announced that necessary measures would be taken to settle interstate border disputes in at least six areas by the end of this year.
As per PTI report, Addressing a joint press conference in Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma said border committees set up earlier to hammer out solutions will submit their reports by November 30.
“The committees will present reports by November 30 before their respective state governments, which will then talk to all stakeholders. After that, a clear picture will emerge and a final statement will be issued,” Sangma said.
Three committees each were formed by the Assam and Meghalaya governments in August after two rounds of talks between Sarma and Sangma over border disputes and their likely solutions.
Of the 12 points of dispute between the two states, six areas with relatively less critical differences have been taken up in the first phase, while the remaining locations will be attended to later.
“Going by the spirit and pace, we are looking to issue a final statement on these six areas by December 30,” Sarma said, adding that the entire exercise is being monitored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The two states will be receiving guidance from the PM and the home minister before the final statement is issued, he underlined.
The Assam CM further said if conclusions are arrived at with regard to some of the disputed locations that are being taken up, the statement will be issued only on those ‘areas of agreement’, while discussions on the remaining sites will continue.
The six disputed areas that will be attended to in the first phase fall under Kamrup, Kamrup Metropolitan and Hailakandi districts on the Assam side, he added.
