Silchar (Assam): Top ministers from Assam and Meghalaya met on Saturday to thrash out a resolution to the long-standing border dispute between the two neighbouring states at Ratacherra village in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills.

The meeting was attended by Assam Industry and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patwary and Meghalaya’s Home Minister Lakhmen Rymbui, among others, an official statement said.

During the meeting, both sides laid down procedures for resolving the border dispute, the statement added.

Later, Patwary said the meeting was successful and both sides also exchanged relevant documents. However, no conclusion was reached and the next meeting on the issue will be held in Shillong, the statement added.

Meghalaya’s minister Rymbui also termed the meeting as fruitful and said the next meeting will be held in October itself, it said.

Also present at the meeting were the DCs of Cachar and East Jaintia Hills districts, the SP of Cachar and MLAs Khalil Uddin (Assam) and Shitlang Pale (Meghalaya).

Another team of ministers from the two states had conducted a joint inspection of the inter-state border areas near Guwahati on Saturday. Soon after Meghalaya was carved out of Assam in 1972, it had challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971.