Meghalaya tribal council to take boundary deal with Assam to court

The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council has formed a coordination committee to prepare the ground for a case.

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.