Meghalaya and Assam CMs to meet Home Minister Amit Shah today; Read timeline of border row

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma will be meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday over resolving the border issues between the two Northeastern states. The meeting will be held regarding the resolving of the border issue between the two states holds major prominence as the state governments are making efforts to resolve the areas of differences. 

As per ANI, the chief ministers will travel together from Guwahati for the meeting and are expected to meet the Home Minister in the evening after which they will head back towards Guwahati. This comes at a time when Assam CM Sarma held an all-party meeting on Tuesday. Tweeting about the same, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that efforts to resolve the border issue have started bearing fruits for the six issues out of the 12 areas of differences, and thus these areas have been identified for resolution in the first phase. He also sought the cooperation of all the political parties in the same. Apart from that, the Meghalaya cabinet has also through the recommendations of all the three Regional Committees as a process to resolve all the Meghalaya-Assam disputes.

Notably, these recommendations of the regional committee along with the state cabinet will be now discussed with the Home Minister on Thursday. 

What is the Meghalaya-Assam border dispute? 

As of now, there are a total of 12 points of dispute along the borders of Assam and Meghalaya and the area of disputes along the border areas include Upper Tarabari, Gazang reserve forest, Hahim, Langpih, Borduar, Boklapara, Nongwah, Matamur, Khanapara-Pilangkata, Deshdemoreah Block I and Block II, Khanduli and Retacherra. The 885-km-long border shared by both Assam and Meghalaya has been a site of a dispute after Meghalaya was carved out of Assam under the Assam Reoroganisation Act, 1969. 

A point of contention between both the states remains the district of Langpih in West Garo Hills which borders Assam's Kamrup district. Langpih was a part of the Kamrup district during the British colonial period but it became a part of the Garo Hills and Meghalaya after independence further triggering initial disputes.

Assam which continues to consider it a part of the state was countered by Meghalaya which questioned the Blocks I and II of the Mikir Hills and claimed that these were the parts of erstwhile United Khasi and Jaintia Hills districts. Following this, these differences have cropped up and resulted in skirmishes among various communities inhabiting the border areas.

Timeline of the development between Meghalaya and Assam over the border dispute 

1972: Meghalaya challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971, leading to disputes in 12 areas after being separated from Assam.

May, 2020: Four rounds of chief ministerial-level talks were held between both the Chief Ministers. 

January 12, 2021: Assam CM assured both governments arrived at mutual understanding' over six areas of boundary dispute. 

July 23, 2021: Concerning the inter-state disputes which have continued over decades, Assam and Meghalaya chief ministers met for the first time in July 2021. 

August 6, 2021: For the second time in August 2021, both the CMs met again and further agreed to form three committees to resolve their long-pending boundary dispute in a phased manner. 

September 16, 2021: Next, both the CMs met for the third time in a virtual manner in September 2021. 

Following this, two regional committees have been set up for resolving the dispute in a phased manner.

While six sites are in consideration in the first phase including Tarabari, Gijang, Hahim, Baklapara, Khanapara-Pilingkata, and Ratacherra, the disputed areas are part of Cachar, Kamrup Metro, and Kamrup Rural on Assam's side and West Khasi Hills, Ri Bhoi district and East Jaintia Hills on Meghalaya's side.

Image: PTI