Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today said Block-I and Block-II of Assam's Karbi Anglong district should be transferred to his state as a sizeable part of the people there belonged to the ethnic group residing in Meghalaya.
"There is no denying the fact that people inhabiting a sizeable portion of Block-I and Block-II belong to the same ethnic group residing in Meghalaya and therefore that area should be transferred to Meghalaya," Sangma told the state assembly while replying to a resolution moved by Opposition United Democratic Party leader Paul Lyngdoh.
The chief minister said the transfer of these areas in 1951 was resented by the inhabitants as there was no common bond in terms of either race or language with the people of the then Mikir Hills district of Assam.
The Assam government had in 1951 carved out two huge chunks (Block-I and Block-II) from the Jowai Sub-Division of the then United Khasi and Jaintia Hills district and tagged those to the Mikir Hills Autonomous District (now Karbi Anglong).
Sangma endorsed a view that the chief ministers of both states in 1971 had taken that a comparative population of the Karbis and Jaintias in the two blocks should be accepted as the guiding criterion in deciding the issue.
He, however, said a solution could not be arrived at in view of the impossibility of obtaining a comparative study of the demographic structure.
Moving the resolution, Paul recommended amendment to the North East Re-organisation Act, 1971, to facilitate the inclusion of villages under Block-I and Block-II to Meghalaya.
Paul said the boundary dispute between Assam and Meghalaya had three major areas - traditional areas of difference, areas having new encroachment and areas historically part of Khasi and Jaintia Hills.
He said Block-I and Block-II were the areas which were tagged to Assam's Karbi Anglong district for "political expediency."
Assuring the House of engaging with Assam in solving the vexed border dispute including transferring Block-I and Block-II to Meghalaya, the chief minister said "people living in the areas along the disputed inter-state boundary will be included in all developmental endeavours of the state."
Informing the House about the several meetings held with Assam's counterparts since 1971, the chief minister said the need to sort out outstanding issues involving both states lied in a true spirit of friendship and mutual respect.
Assam and Meghalaya have 12 areas of differences along the inter-state border.
