Guwahati: A ministerial-level meeting of the Mizoram and Assam governments will be held in Aizawl on August 9 to find a lasting solution to the vexed inter-state border dispute between two states.
A senior official of the Mizoram Home Department said that Home Minister K. Sapdanga would lead the state’s delegation while the Assam delegation would be headed by the state’s Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora.
Due to the Assembly election in Mizoram in November last year and Lok Sabha elections in April-June, the pending meeting between the two states could not be held for a long time, the official said.
He said that as per the decision of the ministerial level meeting held in Guwahati in November 2022, the Mizoram government has already submitted a list of 62 border villages to the Assam government that are within the Mizoram territory.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Mizoram counterpart Lalduhoma during a meeting on February 9 in Guwahati agreed to make joint efforts to resolve the long-pending inter-state border issue. Assam and Mizoram share a 164.6 km-long border with Mizoram’s Aizawl, Kolasib, and Mamit districts abutting southern Assam’s Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts.
Mizoram claims that 509 square miles of the reserved forest, notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) 1873, falls within its territory. Assam, on the other hand, regarded the border shown on a map prepared by the Survey of India in 1933 as its current boundary. On July 26, 2021, there were clashes along Assam-Mizoram border which resulted in the death of seven people and injuries to several others. The Union Home ministry had to intervene.Earlier on November 17, 2022 Mizoram Home Minister Home Lalchamliana
and Assam’s Border Protection and Development Minister, Atul Bora took part in the meeting.
In a joint statement both sides stated Government of Mizoram will furnish the list of villages, their areas, geo-spatial extent, and ethnicity of the people and other relevant information within three months to support their claim which can be examined by setting up Regional Committees from both sides to arrive at an amicable resolution of the vexed border issues. The Government of Assam will extend full cooperation wherever sought.
Both sides agreed to abide by the resolutions encapsulated in the Joint Statement of 5 th August 2021 signed in Aizawl. Both sides agreed to continue their resolve to maintain peace and harmony on the Inter-State border among communities living on both sides with a view to further strengthen their age-old ties.
High level delegation from Mizoram expressed that there has been huge unrest among the areca nut growers in Mizoram on account of problems being faced in transportation of their produce to Assam and other parts of the country. Both the sides agreed to refer the issue to respective Chief Ministers to evolve an amicable solution. Both sides also agreed to continue a sustained zero tolerance policy against transportation of smuggled arecanut from other countries.
On September 21, 2022 , Assam Chief Minister,Himanta Biswa Sarma met his then Mizoram counterpart, Zoramthanga in New Delhi to resolve the long standing border issues.
At a one-to-one meeting held at Assam House, both the Chief Ministers reviewed the ministerial level talks held at Aizawl on August 9 this year. A ministerial delegation headed by Assam Minister Atul Bora went to Aizawl to hold talks on resolving the border problem.
Earlier Assam and Mizoram have agreed that economic activities including cultivation and farming which have been practised by the people along the borders of the two States shall not be disturbed but allowed to continue regardless of the administrative control presently exercised by either State at such locations subject to Forest Regulations and after informing the Deputy Commissioners concerned.
Assam’s Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi share a 164.6-km long border with Mizoram’s three districts of Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit.
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