GUWAHATI: The Congress party will raise the concerns of residents of Lumpi, a village along the Assam-Meghalaya border dispute, in the ongoing autumn session of the assembly, said Leader of Opposition Debbarta Saikia.
A team of Congress party leaders including Saikia, Executive President Rana Goswami, Deputy Leader of Opposition Rakib Hussain and Boko MLA Nandita Das visited the disputed Lumpi region along the Assam-Meghalaya border dispute.
We will raise the issue of Lumpy sector in the assembly session. We will represent the people. They do not want to live with Meghalaya. There is a constitutional provision for the settlement of border disputes. There are border disputes between Punjab and Haryana and between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. But none of them want to resolve disputes like our Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,” East Mojo quoted Saikia as saying.
Stating that there are protests everywhere, he said that even ruling party MLA Amyu Kumar Bhuyan and MP Tupan Kumar Gogoi also protested against it.
Saikia said, “We have reasons to believe that our border is not secure under the leadership of Hamanta Biswa Sarma.
“The boundary between the two states was settled in 1971. In 1985, the Chandrasaurant Commission also rejected Meghalaya’s claim to Lumpi. Hence, the question of resettlement does not arise,” he added.
Assam Congress working president Rana Goswami residents of Lumpi are not ready to stay with Meghalaya. “They choose to stay with Assam,” he said
“People are scared of the situation here. The Assam government is trying to resolve the dispute without following constitutional rules,” claimed Goswami.
Lumpi is one of the six conflict zones between Assam and Meghalaya. Both states have claimed ownership of the village for over half a century.
