TMC MP Leaders Demand Repeal of Assam-Meghalaya Border Agreement
Guwahati: Meghalaya Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs demonstrated outside of Parliament on Tuesday, calling for the cancellation of the boundary agreement between Assam and Meghalaya and the inclusion of the Garo and Khasi languages in the Constitution’s eighth schedule.
The TMC MPs demonstrated outside the Parliament while carrying signs and shouting their demands.
“We are attempting to draw the Government of India’s attention to take cognizance of the emotions of the people of the state and annul the Assam-Meghalaya border accord,” TMC leader Mukul Sangma stated.
He further said, the resolution of any problem “but then, is designed to build an enabling environment for the future; an atmosphere that will enable people to live in a mutual coexistence. The deal reached goes against the feelings, desires, and acceptance of the Meghalayan people.
Assam shares a 2,743 km boundary with Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and West Bengal. It is locked in border disputes with Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.
The two states had agreed to settle their five-decade-old border dispute in March in six of the twelve disputed places along the 884.9-km border. Tensions between them frequently arose along this border.
“We are requesting that the Garo and Khasi be added to the Constitution’s Eighth Schedule. Today in Zero Hour in Parliament, I’m going to bring up this issue,” TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.
Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Maithili, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu are among the 21 languages that make up the eighth schedule of the Rajbhasha.