Mizoram sticks to stand that its border with Assam is based on 1875 notification: Minister

Aizawl, Aug 27 (PTI) Mizoram Home Minister K Sapdanga on Wednesday reaffirmed the government's stand that its boundary with Assam is based on a notification issued in 1875.

The assertion came days after a fresh tension on the Mizoram-Assam border.

Addressing the assembly on the first day of the monsoon session, Sapdanga said that the Mizoram government approved the areas demarcated in the 'Inner Line on the Southern Frontier of the District of Cachar', which was notified on August 20, 1875, as the state's actual boundary with Assam.

Assam, however, asserts that the border defined by a map prepared by the Survey of India in 1933 is its constitutional boundary with Mizoram.

According to the home minister, both Mizoram and Assam have held talks on more than 10 occasions since 1988 to amicably resolve the vexed border dispute.

The last official-level discussion between the two states on the boundary issue was held in Guwahati on April 25 to find an amicable solution to the long-standing dispute, he said.

Sapdanga said that the next round of official-level talks has been proposed to be held in Mizoram, but the exact date of that is yet to be finalised.

Apart from ministerial-level and official-level talks, the two states are also taking steps to resolve the dispute by providing important border-related documents to each other, he said.

The home minister said that the Mizoram government formed a study team to task with collecting important documents to strengthen the state's claim.

Sapdanga also said that the state government has constructed and maintained border roads along the state border with Assam.

However, it has stopped maintaining or using some of those roads, as it can induce violation of the status quo and an agreement signed by the two states in previous talks.

On August 15, police and forest department officials from Assam reportedly entered Saikhawthlir village in west Mizoram's Mamit district and damaged around 290 rubber plants being cultivated by the villagers. The area was claimed by both states.

The incident sparked tensions along the inter-state border, which was soon defused following a meeting between district officials and police officers of the two northeastern neighbours.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma recently said that he spoke to his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma and both agreed to continue to maintain status quo on the disputed areas along the inter-state border.

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 northeastern states, which mainly stemmed from two conflicting colonial-era demarcations — one from 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation and another from 1933, is a long pending issue that has been unresolved till date.

The dispute escalated into violence on several occasions. A clash between police forces of both states near Mizoram's Vairengte village on July 26, 2021, resulted in the death of seven people, including six policemen from Assam.

Since August 2021, the two Northeastern states have held four rounds of ministerial-level talks, besides negotiations and virtual meetings at official-level to resolve the decades-old border dispute.

In the last official-level talks held in Guwahati in April, both states agreed to maintain the status quo along the disputed areas and to expedite responses to claims made by Mizoram. PTI COR NN