Garo people never wanted Meghalaya’s division: NPP leader

The Garo people never wanted a divided Meghalaya since the time of Late P. A Sangma, said MP of the Rajya Sabha, Dr WR Kharkuli on reacting of the demand of Garoland by few Garo NGOs. 

Speaking to reporters, Dr Kharluki said that this issue has been for so long, but our leader PA Sangma was never for it and the people of Garo Hills always supported him. 

“We are small tribes in the North East, if we keep on dividing ourselves then where will it lead us”, said Dr Kharluki. 

Kharluki also said that his party, the National People’s Party (NPP) is built on one vision and that is to unite the people. “The NPP vision is to unite the whole of North East, so when we go to Delhi atleast with 15-16 MPs, we will go with a demand but not to beg…if we go on dividing then we will reach nowhere, the Centre will never listen to us”, he added.

The demand for a separate state primarily for the Garo tribal people of Meghalaya has been gathering steam ahead of the Assembly elections in Meghalaya.

Elections to the assemblies in Meghalaya is likely to place by February 2023. 
The Garoland Statehood movement began more than 20 years ago as a result of alleged discrimination against the Garo Hills population and unequal resource distribution in comparison to the Khasi and Jaintia tribe-dominated eastern part of Meghalaya.

The area of the Garo Hills is 10,102 square kilometers. 13.94 lakh people lived in this region as per the 2011 Census. There were 22.44 lakh people living in the 15,546 sq km Khasi-Jaintia Hills region.