State govt to decide where to house ANVC-B militants: Mukul

Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today said the state government will decide where the breakaway faction of the Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC-B) militants will be housed until the time the final settlement peace agreement fructify.
The statement came at a time when political parties in the Khasi Hills region aired their stiff opposition to the government's plan to keep the ANVC-B cadres in an area under West Khasi Hills district.
"The state government will decide where they (ANVC-B) are going to be housed. It's not that we will go by the dictate of anybody..." Mukul told reporters on the sidelines of a program here.

Exhorting the importance of the designated camps, the Chief Minister said the purpose of the camp was to ensure the cadres were housed in those camps and ensure that district administration enforce provisions of law.
He also said the ANVC-B had submitted the list of its cadres and the number of arms they have, to the government.
The ANVC-B is a breakaway faction of the ANVC which had signed a tri-partite ceasefire agreement with the state and the Centre since 2004.
The armed militant groups, the state and the Centre had in January last year signed an agreement for which certain sections of the Sixth Schedule would be amended to give more powers to the Autonomous District Council in the Garo Hills to fit in the demands put forth by the militant groups.