Aizawl: Mizoram on Friday reaffirmed the 1875 Cachar Inner Line as its historical and legal boundary with Assam.
In a written reply to a query from Opposition Congress member C. Ngunlianchunga, Home Minister K. Sapdanga informed the Assembly that the government remains committed to the Cachar Inner Line notified in 1875 as its boundary with Assam.
He said this position has remained unchanged and has been supported by all political parties and major NGOs since the 1950s, when Mizoram was still a district council under Assam.
Conversely, the Assam government continues to maintain its stance based on the “Inner Line” of the Lushai Hills District as described in a notification issued on March 9, 1993, he said.
As the views of both states differ, the Mizoram government has taken several steps and approached the Centre multiple times. The two states have also held discussions on many occasions, he added.
He clarified that the Council of Ministers meeting held on July 8, 2019, did not newly accept the Cachar Inner Line of 1875 but reaffirmed that it remains the government’s original and existing position.
“Since the Centre has been aware of this long-standing dispute and has already taken steps towards a resolution, the Mizoram government did not issue a separate notice informing the Centre about the matter,” he said.
According to Sapdanga, both states have engaged in several key dialogues in a bid to resolve the vexed border dispute over the past few years.
He said that after the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) assumed power in December 2023, a high-level meeting was convened in Aizawl between representatives of Mizoram and Assam on August 9, 2024, to discuss the core issues of the border dispute.
Representatives of both governments met again in Guwahati for official-level talks to further technical and administrative negotiations on April 25 last year, he said.
In an effort to ease ground-level tensions, foster peace, and maintain good relations along the border, the two states hosted a border cultural festival at Dholai in Assam’s Cachar district on November 25, 2025, the Home Minister said.
Three Mizoram districts, Aizawl, Kolasib, and Mamit, share a 164.6-km-long border with Assam’s Cachar, Sribhumi, and Hailakandi districts.
The border dispute between the two states mainly stems from two conflicting colonial-era demarcations, one from 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation and another from 1933. It remains a long-pending issue that has yet to be resolved.
The dispute has escalated into violence on several occasions. A clash between the police forces of both states near Mizoram’s Vairengte village on July 26, 2021, turned deadly, resulting in the death of seven people, including six policemen from Assam.
Since August 2021, the two states have held four rounds of ministerial-level talks, along with official-level negotiations and virtual meetings, to resolve the decades-old border dispute.