Shillong, Apr 27: Meghalaya and Assam have once again agreed to maintain "status quo" with regard to boundary disputes between the two neighbouring states but decided to constitute a body involving concerned district councils to review the border demarcation issue. "It was agreed that in the area where DCs have jurisdiction in Meghalaya, the chief executive members of the concerned DCs and the chief executive members and the chairman of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council on the Assam side would constitute a body to review the border demarcation issues," according to minutes of discussion between the two chief ministers held in Guwahati last week.
Both the councils would meet as frequently as necessary and submit their findings to their respective state governments within 15 days of their meetings to enable the respective authorities to finalise the issues expeditiously, the minutes released to the media here said. Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang went to Guwahati on Tuesday last to meet his counterpart Tarun Gogoi to discuss the long-pending boundary dispute issue and also a strategy for joint operation to tackle militancy.
This was Lapang's first visit to Assam after assuming chief ministership on March 4. Although political analaysts here viewed that maintaining "status quo" is merely a tradition being carried forward, with successive governments doing the same down the years, Lapang termed the move to involve the DCs in solving the problem "a step forward."
Bureau Report