Assam-Meghalaya border issue: 2nd round of talks likely to begin by April-May; says Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma

The second round of talks to resolve the inter-state boundary issue between Assam and Meghalaya in all likelihood will begin from May or as early as in the later part of April.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that preliminary talks have already started unofficially between him and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The Meghalaya Chief Minister in his response to a query on as to when can one expect talks between both the states at the Chief Ministerial level said,”We will try to iniate it as soon as possible. And we have always been talking at the personal level. So, in fact the communication has already started. But officially we will try to work it out sometime in the later part of April or may be around in the month of May.”

Chief Minister Conrad Sangma further said that the process may take some time since the Regional Committees have been newly constituted after the election results in the state.

Speaking on this aspect, Conrad Sangma said,”we will start the process of discussion, because we would also like the Regional Committees to sit down and do our homework since the Regional Committees have been re-constituted now.”

“So we want the 3 Regional Committees to sit down once and get familiar to all the issues. And, than it can be expected in the month of May, we can start in April also, but we just want to do our homework well,” Conrad Sangma added.

Assam and Meghalaya have identified 12 disputed areas along the interstate border. Both the states, which began the first round of discussions in July 2021, signed an MoU in March 2022 to resolve differences in 6 areas in the first phase.

The areas included-Hahim, Gizang, Tarabari, Boklapara, Khanapara-Pilingkata and Ratacherra.

In November last year, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma during his first term had stated that the process for the second round of talks between both the states for settling the border issue had become “slightly complicated”, following the death of 6 people in police firing in the November 22 violence.

However, both the Meghalaya as well as the Assam government claim Mukroh to be within their own respective territories.