SHILLONG, Mar 11 (PTI): Faced with threat by the banned Achik National Volunteers� Council (ANVC) to unilaterally end the seven-year ceasefire agreement, Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today rushed to Delhi to urge the Centre to extend it before the March 31 deadline.
�Sangma has gone to pursue the matter with the Union Home Ministry. The people of Garo Hills want the present peaceful situation to continue with religious leaders also expressing the same opinion. Therefore the government will also go by this,� Chief Minister DD Lapang told a press conference here.
�We don�t want the ANVC to go back to jungles again,� Lapang said, adding that a final decision on the extension of cease-fire with the militant outfit would be taken by the Ceasefire Monitoring Committee.
Asked about the government�s views on the ANVC�s demand for creation of an autonomous council in the Garo Hills on the lines of the Bodoland Territorial Council, Lapang said this too would be decided by the committee appointed by the Centre to hold talks with the group.
The banned Garo outfit, which had entered into a tripartite cease-fire agreement with the Centre and State in 2004, is peeved at the Union government�s decision to extend the ceasefire periodically instead of continuing it indefinitely.
