Rio, Sarma hold meeting in Guwahati

January 24, 2022 51 Views No Comment

January 24, 2022

Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio, accompanied by deputy chief minister Y. Patton and NPF legislature party leader T.R. Zeliang Sunday met Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at the latter’s residence in Guwahati.
Rio was accompanied by Patton while Zeliang met the duo in Guwahati on Sunday.

The meeting between the leaders of both states has sparked speculations that it may have do with the simmering and unresolved border dispute between the two states.

Taking to twitter, Sarma said that both he and Rio held a fruitful discussion “on issues of mutual interest, people’s welfare in both states and strengthening our friendship in presence of Nagaland’s DyCM Y Patton & ex-CM TR Zeliang.”

As reported, sources had said that the meeting was likely over the longstanding border issue between the two states.

The visit also comes a day ahead of the meeting of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly’s select committee to examine the Nagaland-Assam border issue, scheduled on January 24.

Agencies: Meanwhile, Sarma, a former veteran Congress minister and present Assam chief minister on Sunday accused the Congress of creating border issues in northeast through unplanned creation of new states. Sarma said that his government was trying to correct those mistakes.

He said that had the Congress party would have earlier clarified on boundary demarcation of North Eastern states then today “we would have not faced any issues.” Sarma alleged that it was Congress’ game plan is to keep the North East fighting among themselves.

Sarma’s statement came following opposition from Congress and other parties to the recent agreement between Assam and Meghalaya to sort out differences in six disputed areas through a give and take formula of land swap.

As part of the deal, of the total disputed area of 36.79 sq km in the 6 areas Assam would get 18.51 sq km while Meghalaya would get 18.28 sq km
Besides Meghalaya, Assam has border disputes with Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. As per Assam assembly records, the total area of border disputes with all four states is around 690 sq km.

Source: http://www.nagalandpost.com/2022/01/24/rio-sarma-hold-meeting-in-guwahati/