Cabinet minister and chairman of the Regional Committee for West Khasi Hills District Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar on Thursday said that he would fix a date for conducting an inspection to Langpih sector next week.
Speaking to reporters, Tongkhar said, “After the inspection, we will have another round of meeting with all the stakeholders and will necessary recommendations to the state government with regards to the villages that falls under the Langpih sector.”
Tongkhar said he was told that Langpih sector is difficult due to mixed ethnicity because the Nepalese are residing in villages surrounded by Khasi and Garo villages.
“That is why we will go for a site inspection to understand and we will try to discuss with Assam if they can consider all those Nepali villages surrounded by Khasi and Garo villages to fall under the boundary of Meghalaya state. We will try to do that,” he asserted.
The minister said the willingness of the people will play a very important role for resolving the long pending boundary dispute in the area. He recalled that during the first phase of border talks, ethnicity and willingness of the people out of the five principles have dominated the exercise to end the dispute in the six areas of difference shared between the two states.
“Therefore, we expect the people that they should collectively take a decision as the entire village and if possible entire area so that we can settle it all at once. However, if there is a mixed reaction – if some group of people wants to be in Meghalaya and some wants to be in Assam, it will be very difficult to settle the issue,” he said.
According to him, the willingness of the people will only be taken during the joint inspection between the Meghalaya and Assam regional committees.