SHILLONG: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday stated that he would request Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to restart the second phase of border talks to resolve the six remaining areas of difference after the Assembly’s budget session.
Speaking to reporters, CM Sangma said, “After the budget session I will again propose to the Assam CM that we should meet again and take the discussion forward.”
“In fact, we have been discussing this with the Assam chief minister and we are waiting for the appropriate date,” he added.
Regarding the delay in resuming the border talks, Sangma stated that, “As I said whenever we are planning to meet then some election comes up or there is some large programme that is happening in Guwahati. I am hopeful right after the budget session we will try to meet again to take this discussion forward.”
“But it is purely because of so many elections – we had the bye election in Gambegre and we had the district council elections and now we are having the Assembly‘s budget session and Assam is having their programme, because of multiple factors, we are not able to take this forward,” he added.
Earlier, last year, the Meghalaya government expressed disappointment over Assam’s lack of enthusiasm in resuming talks to resolve their border disputes during the second phase.
"We had conveyed our concerns to our counterparts in Assam," stated Cabinet Minister Paul Lyngdoh, who chaired the West Khasi Hills regional committee. He added that the Deputy Commissioner of West Khasi Hills had raised the matter with his counterpart in Kamrup.
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