The signing of an agreement between Assam and Meghalaya has hopefully ended a part of their five-decade-old inter-state border dispute. Tuesday’s agreement, signed between Assam and Meghalaya Chief Ministers Himanta Sarma and Conrad Sangma in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is based on recommendations made jointly by both states in January this year. In the proposals, out of the 36.79 sq km of disputed area, Assam will get control of 18.51 sq km and Meghalaya 18.28 sq km.
It is now over to the Survey of India, which will delineate and demarcate the boundaries in the presence of representatives of both governments. This will be placed in Parliament for approval and the process is likely to take a few months.
Assam has border disputes not just with Meghalaya, but with Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh as well, each with a legacy of its own. This is because during British rule, Assam consisted of the present-day Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya. After the Northeastern states were reorganised in 1972 in order to give shape to ethnic aspirations, the disputes surfaced. The long-standing differences between Assam and Meghalaya began that year when the latter was carved out of the former under the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971.
Several attempts were made to resolve the differences but without success. For instance, in 1985, an official committee was constituted with former Supreme Court Chief Justice Y V Chandrachud and the then Assam and Meghalaya CMs Hiteswar Saikia and Williamson Sangma, but they failed to find a solution. It is in this background that Tuesday’s agreement needs to be looked at. A seemingly intractable problem will see closure if things work out according to plan.
There are already calls in the Northeast that the Assam-Meghalaya pact should be used as a template to end the other border disputes. The Centre and the Northeast states have a golden opportunity to at least bring the parties to the negotiating table as all the seven states in the region are either ruled by the BJP or its ally at the helm. It is time to catch the bull by the horns and seize the moment.