By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, July 29: Dispur is not taking the Assam’s inter-State boundary problem with Meghalaya seriously and has left the villagers living along the Meghalaya border at the mercy of the neighbouring State. This was alleged by the Greater Baisistha Development Coordination Committee.

According to the Greater Baisistha Development Coordination Committee, several acres of land in the Baisistha locality under Dispur Revenue Circle had been encroached upon by Meghalaya in the last few years. The encroachment by Meghalaya was also rampant at the Boko area in Kamrup district, said the Committee.

Biren Sarma, a senior citizen and secretary of the Baisistha Development Coordination Committee, said the Meghalaya was silently but steadily encroaching the Assam’s territory and the days were not far when the entire Baisistha and the Boko locality would be encroached upon by the neighbouring State.

He further said the encroachment of land by Meghalaya could also trigger violent clashes between the Assamese residents and the Khasis living along the inter-State border. “Despite being well aware of the encroachment problem, the Assam Government still remains a mute spectator,” said Sarma. He said the encroachment problem had aggravated so much that the Meghalaya Government had recently claimed the Koinadhora area near Dispur as its part.

The Baisistha Development Coordination Committee also urged Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to take up the encroachment issue with his Meghalaya counterpart and to provide security to the residents living along the Meghalaya border.