Shillong, November 15 2008: THE SECOND chief secretary-level meeting to solve the inter-state boundary disputes between Assam and Meghalaya, including the one over Langpih in West Khasi Hills district, will be held at Byrnihat on Thursday, Meghalaya chief secretary Ranjan Chatterjee said this today.

The first chief secretary-level meeting to solve the border problem was held on July 31 .

Chatterjee told this correspondent today that the meeting would examine the points raised in the last official-level discussions in Guwahati between the two chief secretaries and the minutes of the meeting of chief ministers of the two states held on June 12 .

"We are committed to finding an amicable solution to the border dispute," Chatterjee said.

Assam laid the foundation stone of a health sub-centre and initiated other development packages at Langpih in the West Khasi Hills border on May 31 .

It was then that Meghalaya protested, saying Langpih belonged to it and Assam had forcefully occupied the place in 1979 and had since been encouraging Nepalis to come and settle there.

In the just-concluded Assembly session in Meghalaya, deputy chief minister H.S.Lyngdoh, who is in charge of the home portfolio, said Meghalaya would create a police outpost at Langpih as Assam had already set up a police outpost there.

The Meghalaya government also maintained that the development work initiated by Assam on the Meghalaya border would be considered only as charity.

The meeting between Meghalaya chief minister Donkupar Roy and his Assam counterpart Tarun Gogoi in Dispur on June 12 had entrusted the chief secretaries of the two states to hold further discussions.

In the first meeting of the chief secretaries, Assam sought a "written statement" from Meghalaya on its claim over Langpih (Lampi in Assam).

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