Guwahati: The Mizoram government has proposed holding official-level talks with Assam in early April to address the 164.6 km-long border dispute, officials said on Monday.
A Mizoram government official said that they suggested holding talks in Guwahati during the first or second week of April to resolve the longstanding boundary issue.
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The official stated that these discussions are crucial to address technical and contentious issues before progressing to ministerial-level talks.
Both state governments held ministerial discussions in Aizawl on August 9, 2024, where they committed to maintaining peace and stability along the disputed border.
However, the fourth round of ministerial talks in August last year did not yield significant progress.
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The official noted that the lack of prior official-level discussions hindered progress in the previous ministerial talks and stressed the importance of conducting official-level talks before the fifth round of ministerial deliberations.
The ministerial meeting in Aizawl was the first after the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), led by Chief Minister Lalduhoma, assumed power in Mizoram in 2023. Following the meeting, Assam Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora expressed optimism about resolving the border dispute, and Mizoram Home Minister K Sapdanga shared a similarly positive outlook.
The Mizoram Home Minister previously stated that as per the decision from the third ministerial-level meeting in Guwahati in November 2022, Mizoram had submitted a list of 62 border villages within its territory to Assam.
Mizoram’s Aizawl, Kolasib, and Mamit districts share borders with Assam’s Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi districts. The border area saw its worst violence on July 26, 2021, when Assam and Mizoram police exchanged gunfire near Vairengte village on National Highway 306, resulting in six Assam Police personnel’s deaths.
Mizoram claims 509 square miles of reserved forest land, notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) 1873, as part of its territory, while Assam refers to the 1933 Survey of India map as its current boundary.
The dispute dates back to 1972, when Mizoram became a Union Territory and the border between Assam and Mizoram was vaguely defined under the North-East Areas Reorganisation Act, 1971, without clear demarcation.