Assam Chief Minister Himanta Vishwa Sharma met his Meghalaya counterpart Konrad’s Sangma here on Saturday and discussed various issues. Sharma wrote on the social media forum ‘X’, “Today I was discussed with Sangma of Shri Konrad, the Honorable Chief Minister of Meghalaya in Guwahati. We discussed many issues to strengthen the shared progress of both states.
However, he did not clarify which issues were discussed in detail. The previous meeting of the two Chief Ministers took place on June 2, in which it was agreed to establish a border column on five of the 12 disputed areas by Independence Day.
Assam and Meghalaya signed an agreement in March 2022 to resolve the border dispute of six regions. It was agreed to install the border column in five areas, while it was decided not to construct there at the moment due to “difference in interpretation” over the sixth area Pillingta.
The issue was to be discussed at the level of Deputy Commissioners of both the states. In 1972, Meghalaya was given state status by separating from Assam. During this period, the Assam Reorganization Act, 1971 was challenged by the Meghalaya, which led to a dispute in 12 areas on the 884.9 km long border.
After becoming the Chief Minister of Assam in May 2021, Sharma described the resolution of long -standing border disputes with neighboring states as his priority. Subsequently, three regional committees were formed in August 2021 and their report was submitted to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Based on this, the two Chief Ministers signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on March 29, 2022 and resolved six of the 12 disputed areas. Under this agreement, 36.79 square kilometers of disputed area was settled, out of which 18.51 square kilometers of Assam and 18.28 sq km Meghalaya were found.