Mizoram Minister Lays Claim To 62 Villages Along Assam Border as Theirs

AIZAWL: Mizoram Home Minister Lalchamliana laid claim to at least 62 villages located within the limits of the inner line reserved forest located along Assam’s border as falling within its territory.

An area of 509 square mile or 1,318 square kilometers of inner line restricted forest was designated as the true border of Mizoram by The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) of 1875.

On the other hand, Assam is very emphatic that the border marked on the Survey of India map of 1933 is the constitutional border.

Cachar, Hailakandi, and Karimganj are the three Assam districts that share a 164.6 km long inter-state boundary with three Mizoram districts of Aizawl, Kolasib, and Mamit.

According to home minister Lalchamliana, the Assam administration was forwarded and received Mizoram's claim to these areas in the month of February.

Lalchamliana told media persons that they had submitted their claim to Assam in February and are waiting for a response from the Assam government. He also said the next round of border talks between Mizoram and Assam is yet to be decided.

Till date, 3 rounds of ministerial-level talks have been held between Mizoram and Assam to resolve the inter-state border dispute that is long pending.

Moreover, the two neighbouring states have frequently held virtual meetings on the subject. The conflict took a violent turn in July 2021, when police personnel from the two states exchanged fire along the interstate line, leading to the death of six Assamese officers and one civilian.

The violence that erupted in the disputed region on the Assam- Mizoram border close to Vairengte in Mizoram also resulted in more than 60 people suffering injuries.

In the wake of the event, high-level delegations from the two governments held negotiations to settle the contentious border dispute starting August 2021.

It was decided by the delegations in the talks that Mizoram would provide the list of villages, their areas, geospatial extent, ethnicity of the population, and other pertinent information within three months to support its claim. The contentious border issue was then to be examined by regional committees set up from both sides to arrive at an amicable resolution.

The last border talks between the two sides were held in Guwahati in November 2022.

Following this, the Mizoram government set up a research committee in January this year and submitted its claim the following month, in February. Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma met twice in New Delhi in November 2021 and September of the 2022 to find a peaceful resolution to the border conflict.

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