Guwahati: A ‘census tug-of-war’ has emerged in several disputed Assam-Meghalaya border hamlets, with Khasi villagers in parts of Kamrup and West Karbi Anglong districts preventing Assam officials from collecting household data.The resistance has raised concerns over a possible overlap in census records in areas where the boundary dispute between the two states remains unresolved. Assam’s census authorities are expected to seek reports from the districts concerned before formally taking up the matter with Meghalaya, sources said on Wednesday.Resistance has reportedly been reported in parts of around 50 villages in Kamrup district, where predominantly Khasi tribal residents have objected to enumeration by Assam officials.“Some Khasi people in parts of these villages maintain close ties with Meghalaya organizations and its govt, which is why they are resisting the census from the Assam side. The main concern, however, is avoiding any overlap in the data, as the Assam-Meghalaya boundary dispute remains unresolved,” a source in census operations said.The issue triggered fresh tension in West Karbi Anglong on Monday when Khasi residents of disputed Mukroh village disrupted the enumeration and allegedly threatened a census team with physical assault.“The village head’s wife told us not to carry out enumeration in Mukroh, saying Meghalaya had already conducted the census there. They said Meghalaya govt has been providing ration, water and other essentials in their village for a long time,” the supervisor said.He added that any attempt to proceed by force could have triggered an attack.Police personnel were deployed with the census team in West Karbi Anglong, but villagers maintained that enumeration had already been completed by Meghalaya officials.A similar dispute surfaced a week earlier in Lampi, an area that has witnessed violent border clashes in the past. When Assam census officials visited Nowapara Lower Primary School, Khasi residents supporting Meghalaya reached the village. Assam officials claimed that Nowapara falls well within the state’s territory.Police were deployed to defuse the situation, but concerns persisted. “In Khasi-inhabited villages, census work had to be stopped in Lampi, while enumeration continued in villages inhabited by Rabhas and other communities,” an on-duty official said.Resistance has also been reported from Garo, Khasi and Rabha residents in and around Rani, Ukiam, Bakhalapara and Jimirigaon along the inter-state boundary on Guwahati’s outskirts.Assam and Meghalaya signed an agreement in March 2022, in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, to resolve disputes in six of the 12 contested areas. The remaining six areas, involving more complex boundary differences, are yet to be fully settled, though negotiations are continuing.
