Assam, Meghalaya to sign agreement today to resolve 50-year-old boundary dispute

New Delhi: Assam and Meghalaya governments are set to sign an agreement in the national capital on Tuesday evening to resolve their 50-year-old pending boundary difference.

Officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the agreement will be signed by the Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah at around 3.30 pm in the office of the MHA.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Meghalaya Conrad K Sangma would sign the agreement in the presence of chief secretaries of both the states as well as other officials of these states and the officials of MHA.

There is an indication of a final round of discussion with the MHA before the actual Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed between Assam and Meghalaya.

A draft resolution was submitted by the Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 31 for examination and consideration by the MHA. 

The governments of Assam and Meghalaya had come up with a draft resolution to resolve their border disputes in six of the 12 "areas of difference" along the 884-km boundary. 

According to the proposed recommendations for the 36.79 square km of land, Assam will keep 18.51 square km and give the remaining 18.28 square km to Meghalaya. The final agreement between Assam and Meghalaya is significant as the boundary dispute between the two states has been pending for a very long time.

The long-standing land dispute was sparked in 1972 when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam. The border issues came about as a result of different readings of the demarcation of boundaries in the initial agreement for the new state`s creation.