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

New Delhi: Assam and Meghalaya governments on Tuesday signed a ''historic agreement'' here in the national capital to resolve their 50-year-old pending boundary difference. The agreement was signed by the Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

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

#WATCH Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and Meghalaya CM Conrad K Sangma sign an agreement to resolve the 50-year-old pending boundary dispute between their states, in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi pic.twitter.com/hnP6hs8yMm — ANI (@ANI) March 29, 2022

Speaking on the occasion, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, "Today, a 50-year-old pending boundary dispute between Assam and Meghalaya has been resolved. 6 out of 12 points of the dispute has been resolved, which comprises nearly 70% of the boundary. The remaining 6 points will be resolved at the earliest.''

"Since 2014, PM Modi Ji has made numerous efforts for the development of the northeast region. Today, I congratulate Assam CM and Meghalaya CM and their teams on the signing of the agreement to resolve their boundary dispute, '' the Union Home Minister added.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Assam and Meghalaya two months after a draft resolution was submitted by the Chief Ministers of both states to 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 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 as a result of different readings of the demarcation of boundaries in the initial agreement for the new state`s creation.