Shillong, March 12: The controversy over Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi residing in the “disputed border area” of Khanapara figured in the Meghalaya Assembly today with UDP legislator Paul Lyngdoh asking the government to urge Gogoi to either vacate the area or pay rent.

Revenue minister R.C. Laloo said the government was committed to settle the dispute concerning all the areas of differences.

Quoting records, Laloo also said the state guesthouse at Khanapara, which is at present the residence of Gogoi, is on the small hillock known as Kannadhora hill.

The hillock falls under the Khanapara-Pilangakata block which is one of the areas of differences with Assam.

Laloo said as far as the issue of areas of differences including Khanapara, the state government had presented the relevant documents on August 9 last year to the Assam government in support of the claim.

Earlier, while raising a call attention motion in the Assembly on recent reports which quoted Laloo as saying that Gogoi is residing in the disputed area in Khanapara, Lyngdoh asked the state government to officially write to the Assam chief minister to vacate the plot of land at Khanapara where he resides or ask him to start paying house rent to the Meghalaya government.

According to Lyngdoh, the revenue minister had already said the government had records to prove the claim. “Since Meghalaya has records to prove that the land belonged to it, the state government should now officially write to the Assam chief minister and ask him to vacate this plot of land and hand over to the Meghalaya government; otherwise, the chief minister of Assam has an alternative, we can ask him to start paying house rent to the Meghalaya government,” Lyngdoh said.

The UDP legislator said since the government had come up with the statement that the residence of Assam chief minister is a disputed area, “it should take up the matter to its logical end and start the process of getting the land re-transferred to Meghalaya to indicate that we are indeed very serious about resolving this matter at the earliest”. Lyngdoh also wanted the status of the resolution adopted by the Meghalaya Assembly last year urging the Centre to constitute a boundary commission to settle the border issue and also about the status of talks that were supposed to have been held at the level of the chief secretaries of Assam and Meghalaya to look into the 12 areas of differences which also include Khanapara-Pilangkata.

Lyngdoh also asked the minister to look into earlier recommendation of an Assembly committee to facilitate registration of land in the border villages as there is continuous loss of land along the inter-state border with Assam.

In his reply, Laloo said the state guesthouse at Assam which is now the residence of the Assam chief minister and falls within the Khanapara-Pilangakata was constructed in 1976 to accommodate leaders for an AICC convention held in Guwahati.

According to Laloo, the letter of the governor dated August 7, 1976, addressed to the chief ministers of both the states said the Meghalaya government had contended that “the hillock in which guesthouse was constructed fell within Meghalaya and the Assam government should not therefore proceed with the construction.”