Won't accept 1972 demarcation by Assam: Meghalaya

SHILLONG: The Meghalaya government said it would not accept the 1972 demarcation done by Assam wherein a number of areas were included in the then Mikir Hills district, further intensifying the boundary dispute between the two states.

"The block-I and block-II areas were included in the Mikir Hills (now Karbi Anglong). The survey was done unilaterally by Assam. We cannot accept that," state home minister H D R Lyngdoh told reporters here.

He said once the areas of differences are resolved, Meghalaya will demand re-transfer of these areas to the state.

According to the demarcation done by Assam in 1951, many of the disputed areas like Psiar and Khatkasla in the borders of Meghalaya's Jaintia Hills and Assam's Karbi Anglong district were in Meghalaya, Lyngdoh said.

Earlier during a meeting in Guwahati, the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya had decided to constitute a chief secretary-level committee to resolve the vexed boundary row.
The meeting came in the wake of alleged encroachment by Assam on some areas and a firing incident in the disputed Langpih area, which left four people dead.

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‘A bullet-proof vest for us’

“For 53 years since it was imposed in this region, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act has helped soldiers get away with murder...and everyone seems to be deciding on life and death,” says Imphal-based rights activist Babloo Loitongbam.Figures collated from the home departments and human rights organisations in the Northeast say counter-insurgency operations claimed at least 38,000 militants and civilians during the past five decades.But armed forces officials swear by the AFSPA. “This is like a bullet-proof vest for soldiers going to war. Any Act that ensures a certain kind of insulation for a soldier in a conflict situation is necessary. Even with the Act, we have allowed civil law to take over wherever we have crossed the line,” says Assam Rifles Director General Lt Gen K.S. Yadava.He claims greater social awareness and more representation of locals in the armed forces have helped reduce alleged human rights violation.“It (the Act) is doing nothing but promoting gun culture and war-mongering,” says Irom Sharmila Chanu, who has been on hunger strike since 2000 for the repealing of the Act.

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