Guwahati: Student Union Assam (AASU) has urged the Government Assam and Meghalaya not to send 70 percent of the villagers in the disputed Boklapara sector, whose mother tongue was Assam, forcefully to Meghalaya as part of the recent agreement between the two states divide disputed soil along the border between countries.
Aasu’s high level delegation and four other Allied Student Organizations took stock situations in Boklapara, one of the debated areas, which was closest to Guwahati, who had become a bone of dispute between the two governments for decades.
Hundreds of residents of tribal villages, most of the Rabha and Boro communities have enjoyed double voting rights here and also utilizing the benefits of both governments for years.
But when the student delegation, along with community leaders from Assam’s side visited the hilly field on Tuesday, the majority of them said they wanted to be in Assam, President Aasu Dipanka Kumar Nath told TII.
“They mainly quote language factors as the reason their desire to live in Assam.
They are not experienced in Garo or Khasi language, spoken in Meghalaya, and feel that it will be a big problem if they become part of Meghalaya,” said Nath.
Boiling tensions have brewed in areas that have several Vaishnavite Satras (monastery) and some namghars (prayer rooms).
Even as a total of 1.57 square kilometers in the Boklapara sector are debated and the Assam government has recommended the manufacture of 0.56 square kilometers in this sector to Meghalaya, the villages are in the dark about the hamlets that might lose.
Previously, Chairman of Assam Minister Himanta Bustwa Sarma said that reports on the agreement to resolve border disputes were sent to the Indian government, which will begin the next step.
“We have reached a shared agreement so that both countries can maintain a friendly relationship,” Sarma said.
The student delegation is worried that the detrimental situation if the agreement is executed without receiving the approval of the local population.
People in Satras and Namghar are also vulnerable.
There is also a threat that is underlying the person converted to Christianity in Meghalaya.
“Linguistically and culture, 70% of villagers are Assam,” said Nath.
“There is almost no original Garo population in Bakhalapara.
But the government claims there are 30% of Garo’s population here,” added Nath.
Garo Tribals Most inhabit the side of Meghalaya borders, while Rabhas is the majority on the side of Assam.
Nandeswar Rabha, a local Rabha leader and Satpur Panchayat Village President, said that only a neglected population has expressed a desire to go to Meghalaya because the government is more proactive in offering work cards, rations, electricity and education in villages such as Jimirigaon, Bakhalapara, Long Kachari Para and Kundilmukh.
“The majority has realized that they will face problems in the government office because of language factors,” Rabha said.
He said traveling through a hilly field to the RI-BHOI headquarters, Nangpoh, would be another problem.
The Assam Student Union opposed the forced transfer of the villagers of the area disputed to Meghalaya
