Hima Jirang asks Assam to halt bridge work at disputed Umshru

The leadership of Hima Jirang, a traditional Khasi chiefdom in Meghalaya's Ri-Bhoi district, has demanded that the Assam government immediately stop building a bridge at Umshru village, saying the site lies within its traditional territory.

Hima leaders led by Acting Syiem Pa'iem RJ Wahlang inspected the bridge site on Friday, The Shillong Times reported. The inspection followed a formal complaint of encroachment that the Hima had lodged with the office of the Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioner.

Joint inspection by officials

Officials from Ri-Bhoi and their counterparts from Assam also carried out a joint inspection after the complaint. According to the Khasi daily Shillong Mail, the Meghalaya side was led by Patharkhmah Civil Sub-Division SDO Vaibhav Anand Sharma, who visited the site on October 30. No outcome of the joint inspection has been made public so far.

What the Hima wants

Hima Jirang general secretary Sranly Wahlang said the bridge was being built by Assam's Public Works Department even though the location is part of the Hima's land. He said the site is disputed and that work should be suspended until the Meghalaya and Assam governments resolve it through talks.

He also objected to Assam laying a foundation stone at the site, saying that amounted to claiming ownership unilaterally. Instead, he proposed a formal agreement between the two governments under which neither side would claim exclusive ownership of the area while the boundary question remains open.

Syiem Khynnah Pa'iem S. Wahlang and other leaders of the Hima were part of the inspection team. The Assam government had not publicly responded to the demand at the time of writing.

Not the first flashpoint

Umshru has seen border friction before. Earlier, survey pillars erected on the Assam side near the village drew protests in Meghalaya, and Assam agreed to remove them after the Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioner took up the matter with Kamrup (Rural). Assam had said then that the pillars came from a cadastral survey and did not mark the inter-state boundary, according to Meghalaya Monitor.

Why it matters

Meghalaya and Assam signed an agreement in March 2022 that settled six of the 12 disputed sectors along their boundary. Talks on the remaining six are still going on, and local construction by either state in contested villages often becomes a trigger for tension. How the two district administrations handle the Umshru complaint will be watched closely in Ri-Bhoi's border belt.