Shillong, March 29: Meghalaya and Assam are likely to resume negotiations on the thorny inter-state boundary dispute by next month.

Speaking to reporters here today, chief minister Mukul Sangma said the Assam government had sought more time to respond to the documents furnished by Meghalaya on the areas of dispute between the two states.

According to Meghalaya, there are 12 areas of difference along the inter-state border which include Upper Tarabari, Gazang reserve forest, Hahim, Langpih, Borduar, Boklapara, Nongwah, Matamur, Khanapara-Pilangkata, Deshdemoreah, Blocks I and II, Khanduli and Ratacherra.

“We have presented all the relevant documents to Assam on the inter-state boundary dispute. The chief secretary-level talks are likely to resume after the end of the current financial year and we need to strategise an approach, which would be mutually acceptable to both sides, to solve the problems,” Sangma said.

He said social welfare programmes, including development schemes, were being initiated by his government along the inter-state border villages like Langpih.

Yesterday, the Assam government had said neighbouring states like Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura were encroaching into 78,000 hectares of its land.

Assam border areas development minister Siddique Ahmed, while replying to a question in the Assembly, claimed that Assam was not encroaching upon land of any neighbouring state.

He had also claimed that the official residence of chief minister Tarun Gogoi at Koinadhara Hill in Khanapara is under Kamrup (metro) district of Assam and that there was no reason for Meghalaya to stake claim to the area.

Meghalaya, however, had claimed that Gogoi’s residence fell in a “disputed area” in the Khanapara-Pilangkata block.