An autonomous tribal council in Meghalaya has formed a coordination committee to prepare the ground to challenge the partial boundary deal with Assam in court.
The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) constituted the committee on Tuesday with the representatives of five traditional Khasi tribal states called Hima. Each of these Himas have areas bordering Assam.
The KHADC is one of the three tribe-based councils in Meghalaya. The other two are the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council.
“The council will file a petition in the court opposing the memorandum of understanding to settle six of the 12 disputed sectors on the Assam-Meghalaya boundary once our boundary panel studies the report of the coordination committee,” Pynshngain N. Syiem, a member of the KHADC, said.
“We have to seek redressal from the court as the State government is adamant about not reviewing the boundary deal,” he added.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart, Conrad K. Sangma, had signed the understanding on January 29 to settle the border dispute in six “less complicated” sectors. The Centre gave its assent to the agreement two months later.
The deal was made on a “give-and-take” formula that divided the disputed sectors almost fifty-fifty between the two States. Unhappy with the deal, pro-Meghalaya villagers along the border have been staging protests regularly.
Mr. Syiem said the National People’s Party-led Meghalaya government sealed the boundary deal with Assam without taking the KHADC’s recommendations into account. “There are many gaps in the agreement and historical facts were ignored,” he said.
Meghalaya was carved out of Assam, first as an autonomous State in 1970 and then as a State in 1972. According to the KHADC, the boundary deal circumvents the Assam Reorganisation Act of 1965 and the North East Reorganisation Act of 1971.
The United Democratic Party, the largest of the NPP’s coalition partners, has also expressed unhappiness with the boundary deal. Its president, Metbah Lyngdoh, said he would discuss the issue with Mr. Sangma.
“I will discuss the boundary issue with him but it is up to him and his government to examine the matter and address the concerns raised by different groups,” he said.
