The Mizoram government has already ‘conceived’ strategies and is making massive efforts to resolve the long-standing border dispute with neighbouring Assam, state home minister Lalchamliana informed the state legislature on Thursday.
He said that the state government had in 2018 constituted a core committee to study and assess the state boundary.
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The core committee was re-constituted under the chairmanship of state chief secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaunog in 2019, he said.
“The core committee is currently doing research and analysis on the state border by collecting topo-sheets and important documents related to the state boundary with Assam,” Lalchamliana said while replying to a query from opposition Congress Legislature Party leader Zodintluanga Ralte.
He said that the state government has already appointed a nodal officer on the border and submitted a report to the Centre as per the Union Ministry of Home Affairs instruction.
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According to the home minister, the state government has also constituted a ‘team” to compile important documents supportive of Mizoram’s stand on the border to be tabled before experts from Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies, when the team arrive in the state.
He added that a boundary committee involving all political parties and NGOs headed by deputy chief minister Tawnluia has also been formed recently to deal with the boundary issue.
Earlier on Wednesday, the home minister informed the state assembly that Assam has encroached and is currently occupying a vast area of lands belonging to at least 20 farmers from Kolasib district, assembly officials said on Thursday.
These lands are located at Aitlang area bordering Assam’s Hailakandi district, and Buarchep and Phainuam areas, which border Cachar district in Assam, the home minister had said.
“There is no report of any encroachment from the neighbouring state at Thinghlun in western Mizoram’s Mamit district, which border Assam’s Karimganj district,” Lalchamliana was quoted as saying by officials.
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The home minister had said that neither the Mizoram government nor the Assam government has conceived of giving compensations to the 20 farmers in Kolasib district, whose lands have been trespassed by the neighbouring state.
Mizoram’s three districts- Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit share a 164.6 km long inter-state border with Assam’s Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts.
Tension escalated on July 26 when state forces of both states exchanged fire leaving at least six police personnel and a civilian from Assam dead and more than 60 people injured.
The boundary dispute between the two Northeastern states is a long-standing issue and several attempts to resolve it since 1994 have yielded little result.