More than 10,000 Gorkha families who reside in the bordering villages prefer to live in Assam

way2barak, Sept.12: The Assam Gorkha Sanmillan (AGS), Kamrup district body led by Arjun Chetry expressed the view that more than 10,000 Gorkha families choose to live in Assam. “The Gorkha people who reside in the border areas of Lumpi in Kamrup district and Umlapher in West Karbi Anglong district wanted to stay with Assam. Our community has seen repeated harassment and violence from miscreants of Meghalaya,” said Chetri.

This was stated in a memorandum submitted by a delegation of AGS led by its president Krishna Bhujel and chief general secretary Lakshmi Sedai as they met Assam Border Affairs Minister Atul Bora on last Friday. In the memorandum, they stated that the 884-km border between Assam and Meghalaya has experienced repeated flare-ups in 12 disputed areas over the years.

This comes after the start of the second phase of bilateral peace talks between chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Conrad Sangma to resolve the remaining 6 areas of difference between the two states. “There are over 500 families who have been living in Lumpi for more than 4 generations all choose to remain in Assam and we don’t want to leave a single inch of land to Meghalaya,” stated the Gorkhas.