Mizoram-Assam border talks proposed for mid-November in Aizawl
The second round of official level talks to find amicable and long lasting solution to the longstanding interstate border dispute between Mizoram and Assam is scheduled to be held in Aizawl during mid-November, Mizoram Home Minister K. Sapdanga said on Sunday.
Sapdanga told Akashvani News Aizawl that the state home department proposed the talks to be held for 3 days, not necessarily consecutive days, to be able to cover the entire technical and administrative modalities. He, however, said that the final response from the Assam government is still being awaited.
Mizoram delegation is most likely to be headed by the state Home Secretary Vanlalmawia while the Assam delegation is most likely to be headed by senior official of the Border Protection and Development department.
The last round of official-level border talks was held on April 25 last year in Guwahati to address the inter-state border dispute between Mizoram and Assam. The discussions primarily focused on technical and administrative modalities along their 164.6 km shared boundary, laying the groundwork for subsequent ministerial-level negotiations.
State home department officials said that though it was agreed to hold the next round of talks at the earliest, resumption of official level talks on border dispute has been delayed due to different reasons including assembly election being held in April this year.
Mizoram claims that 509 square miles of the Inner Line Reserved Forest (ILRF) delineated in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 as its legitimate area or boundary. In contrast, Assam asserts the border defined by a 1933 map prepared by the Survey of India in 1933 as its constitutional boundary.
Since August 2021, the two north-eastern states have held four rounds of ministerial-level talks, besides negotiations and virtual meetings at official-level to resolve the decades-old border dispute.
Even as several incidents have occurred along the border areas between the two states due to the border disputes, sincere parleys to solve the vexed imbroglio had never been initiated until Policemen of the two states engaged in firing at the outskirts of Vairengte town in Kolasib district bordering Assam on July 26, 2021. Assam government initiated the talks in August that year with its Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora leading the delegation held talks with the Mizoram Home Minister Lalchamliana led delegation in Aizawl.
