Aizawl: More than a year after the last round of border talks was held in November 2022, Mizoram and Assam will resume talks on August 9 to find an amicable solution to the vexed inter-state border dispute, a minister said on Monday.
Mizoram home minister K. Sapdanga said that the next round of border talks will be held in Aizawl.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
The Mizoram delegation would be headed by Sapdanga, while the Assam team would be led by its border protection and development minister Atul Bora, who will be accompanied by home department officials from the neighbouring state.
“The Assam home secretary last week communicated with our home secretary and informed him about their intention to come to Aizawl on August 9 for talks. We conveyed our consent to the Assam government after consulting Chief Minister Lalduhoma,” Sapdanga told reporters.
He expressed optimism that the upcoming talks may yield positive results to bring an amicable solution to the border dispute.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
Although Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had agreed to send his border protection and development minister to Mizoram in March during the meeting of chief ministers of the two neighbouring states in February, no further steps could be taken due to the Lok Sabha elections, according to Sapdanga
He said that Mizoram would submit a memorandum to Assam during the talks.
Citing that both states are committed to finding a solution through not violence but dialogues, Sapdanga said that there was no violation of the status quo from both sides after the violent clash in July 2021.
Three Mizoram districts- Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit- share a 164.6 km border with Assam’s Cachar, Karmganj and Hailankandi districts.
The border dispute between the two neighbouring states is a long-standing and vexed issue, which remains unresolved for decades.
The dispute mainly stemmed from two colonial demarcations – 1875 and 1933.
Mizoram claims that 509 square miles area of the inner line reserved forest, notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) 1873, falls within its territory, while Assam, on the other hand, regarded the map prepared by the Survey of India in 1933 as its constitutional boundary.
Vast areas within the inner line reserved forest now fall under Assam. Similarly, a certain extent of the area, as per the 1933 demarcation, is now on the Mizoram side.
There is no ground demarcation of boundaries between the two states.
The border dispute between Mizoram and Assam had taken an ugly turn in July 2021 when police forces of the two states exchanged fire at the inter-state boundary, leading to the death of six policemen and a civilian from Assam.
More than 60 people were also injured in the violent clash that took place in the disputed area near Mizoram’s Vairengte village.
The two states have held several rounds of talks, including three ministerial-level meetings since August 2021 and agreed to maintain peace along the boundary and resolve the dispute through dialogue.
In the last border talks held in Guwahati in November 2022, both delegations had decided that Mizoram would furnish the list of villages, their areas, geo-spatial extent, and ethnicity of the people and other relevant information within three months to support its claim which can be examined by setting up regional committees from both sides to arrive at an amicable resolution to the vexed border issues.
Accordingly, Mizoram submitted its claim by including 62 villages in the disputed area within its territory and claimed that they were within the extent of the inner line reserved forest notified in 1875.