Guwahati/Shillong, May 15: On either side of the great Meghalaya-Assam divide over Lampi, it is the locals who are paying the price for the gross mismatch between the two states’ commitment to development and its actual implementation on ground zero.
To start with, almost two years after Lampi, the hilltop village bordering Meghalaya, was touted as the next big destination on Assam’s tourism map, nothing much seems to have moved.
Less than half of the 40-km Boko-Lampi road is only complete but the progress on its 26-km hill stretch between Kampadoli to Lampi remains incomplete; the health sub-centre continues to function from a rented house as the Rs 7.5 lakh modest new accommodation for the centre is not yet complete while the PHE water supply scheme remains defunct.
Locals also wonder about the benefits the government had promised in the Rs 12-crore development package announced on May 1, 2008.
“Life is a living hell for nowhere people like us. I was born in Lampi and so were my parents but nothing really has changed for us. We had great expectations from Dispur’s announcement to develop Lampi, but very little has happened. Development is very lax here, so is the security scene. Then there is the constant threat from the Khasi population from across the border over our land,” Sambhu Chetri, 22, who is attending to his injured brother-in-law at GMCH in Guwahati, said.
Similar is the case with Dispur’s plans to develop Lampi into a tourist destination despite Meghalaya seeking the Centre’s intervention to stop Assam from meddling into its territory.
A district administration official said that chief minister Tarun Gogoi was pretty impressed with the idea and wanted it developed as an eco-tourism hotspot to retain its beauty.
Respective departments were asked to draw up plans for integrated development but sources indicated that nothing much came of it.
Says Jyoti Prasad Das, the Local AGP MLA after a tour of the affected area this evening, “Nothing much seems to have moved on the tourism or development front despite the commitments. Dispur had last year said in the Assembly that the proposal was under consideration. An Assembly team with officials from the tourism department had visited the area this year but its report is awaited. As a local MLA I can only say that if the project is pursued, it will lead to a change in mindset on both sides. With tourists coming in from outside, the locals will get busy. Will be moving the government to give effect to the development plans in right earnest”
A senior bureaucrat, who had handled the inter-state border areas in the past, told the The Telegraph that the government really need to be focussed on this front as these areas fare poorly on most socio-economic indicators since Independence despite planned development. “ Things started changing only a couple of years back once the budget was raised. Better late than never but there needs to be proper monitoring as well of the projects sanctioned,” he said.
Funds should not be a problem this time round because the 13th Finance Commission had sanctioned Rs 230 crore for development of border areas with the Dispur committing to supplement this with funds under state plan as well as other sources.
The story is not different from point of view of Meghalaya, carved out of Assam in 1972.
In Meghalaya, the political parties had used the disputes related to Langpih, as Lampi is known in Meghalaya, and other border areas during the elections, thereby delaying any early solution. There has been hardly any development initiated by the Meghalaya government in the disputed border areas. The recent tension is being traced to Assam’s development plans in 2008.
When contacted on the matters related to the joint initiative to develop Langpih Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma today said that this needed to be discussed at a later stage as the immediate concern of the government after the firing incident is to instill confidence in the people and ensure their safety.
Deputy chief minister Bindo Lanong admitted that there was undue delay in solving the boundary problem thereby delaying development works.
“Peace and tranquillity is needed to initiate development works and the Congress governments at the Centre and both the states could have solved the problem much earlier,” Lanong said.
The state BJP has expressed concern over politicians taking mileage over the border dispute during elections, forgetting to develop the area welfare of people.
Langpi meanwhile continues the way it was in 1972, when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam: desperately underprivileged.