Seek urgent action against intruders
DIPHU, Apr 21: Residents of Mothade (B) village today met Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) CEM Dr. Tuliram Ronghang and submitted a memorandum seeking urgent initiative for action against Khasi intruders for massive destruction of their farm and for threatening them of consequences on April 15 in Mothade-B village, under Jirikindeng police station inside West Karbi Anglong district.
The villagers led by GB Phangcho and GB Ronghang in their interaction with the media, stated that on April 15, hundreds of people from Khasi villages comprising of Mojem, Sopiang, Molain, Mi bhar and Behjhur intruded into their village and cut down betelnut trees, bamboos, Tejpatta (Cinnamomum tamala), bananas, cinnamon trees, chandan, lemon, and stink bean trees belonging to them and threatened to burn down their houses the next they enter their village. The villagers called upon the KAAC to direct the Assistant Revenue Officer to survey the destroyed properties and provide them compensation for the massive loss due to the destruction of their farm on massive scale by the Khasi intruders.
The village headmen also informed that the intruders were accompanied by Meghalaya police, administrative officials and KSU members. The villagers in their memorandum stated that though the dispute was not over the state boundary but village between them and Mojem. “They belligerently threatened us that the whole area which has been in West Karbi Anglong Autonomous District since 1951, was now in Meghalaya State and they indicated that we should have to leave our villages and move to other places in West or East Karbi Anglong Autonomous Districts. The village boundary dispute has been turned into inter-state boundary dispute because of the so-called “Give and Take Agreement” of 2022. The Assam police remained mere spectators,” the villagers stated.
Dismayed by the lack of protection from Assam police, the villagers in their memorandum said, “If Assam does not protect us and does not agree to create Autonomous State under Article 244(A) of the Indian constitution, then the whole of Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong should be transferred to Meghalaya state for the sake of unity of our Karbis and other Hills People. And in Meghalaya, we may find it easier to establish an Autonomous State.”
The villagers also expressed their opposition to the “Give and Take Agreement” reached between Chief Ministers of Meghalaya and Assam stating it would only take away huge areas of Karbi Anglong in “exchange” of transfer of Byrnihat to Khanapara, which the villagers stated that the affected and that the Karbis were the direct affected and loser.
The villagers further reminded that aggression and encroachment from Meghalaya has risen ever since the “Give and Take Agreement” was reached between the chief ministers of the two states.