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Call to sort out Assam-Meghalaya border disputes

By ANN Service

MIRZA, March 6 - The All Rabha Students� Union (ARSU), Kamrup district committee, has urged the Assam government to sort out the inter-state boundary dispute between the Assam-Meghalaya border villages including Lumpih, Gamerimura, Muduki, Jimirigaon, and Sildubi, in consultation with the Meghalaya government, to reduce tension between the two neighbouring states.

In a press release issued here, the ARSU alleged that the Meghalaya government has been trying to annex some villages of Assam by constructing roads, and giving electricity connections to residents. It said that tension occurs frequently between the communities of Assam and Meghalaya in several villages along the border as Meghalaya has been allegedly trying to include many villages of Assam in its map for past several years.

The ARSU stated that the picturesque Lumpih belongs to Assam as per the map of the Survey of India but Meghalaya has reportedly been claiming Lumpih as its own, which has led to several confrontations between the administration, police and people of Assam and Meghalaya.

The Survey of India had also set up inter-state boundary pillars at Lumpih soon after the formation of Meghalaya, but those pillars have been broken into pieces allegedly by the Meghalaya government due to the lackadaisical attitude of the Assam government to sort out the inter-state boundary dispute, the release said.

The ARSU stated that a sum of Rs 1.6 crore was recently sanctioned by the Assam government for setting up a Border Outpost at Umali in Upper Lumpih, and a team of civil and police officers, engineers and contractors had reached Lumpih on February 29 to initiate work on the Border Outpost at Umali in Upper Lumpih. But the team was reportedly obstructed from launching the work by Meghalaya Police, saying that the territory of Umali belonged to Meghalaya.

The incident has led to further tension between Assam and Meghalaya, the ARSU said, asking the Assam government to initiate steps to sort out the inter-state boundary disputes in various places.

It also alleged that Meghalaya government machineries have been obstructing construction of several projects launched by Assam in the past several years and many people have also been killed due to the border tension. The Assam government has already set up BOPs, schools, roads, markets, etc., in Lumpih for the benefit of Assamese people.

Lumpih is a picturesque tourist spot, but sources said security and road connectivity are the main bottlenecks in the way of development.

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