Mizoram readies 7-member team for April 25 border talks with Assam

Aizawl, April 16: The Mizoram government would send seven officers, led by Home Secretary Vanlalmawia, to the Mizoram-Assam secretary-level meeting on the interstate border dispute, scheduled on April 25.

Revealing this post the seventh Mizoram State Boundary Committee meeting on Wednesday, Home Minister K. Sapdanga said that the delegation is “very optimistic” about resolving the dispute along the 164.6 km-long border between the states.

During the meeting, they discussed the report of the four-member study group, which was formed on January 25, 2024 and was attended by Revenue Minister B. Lalchhanzova, adviser to Chief Minister (Political) Pu Lalmuanpuia Punte, Chief Secretary in-charge H. Lalengmawia. Border experts and Home Department officials also attended the meeting.

“The previous ministerial-level discussion (in August last year) could not achieve much due to the lack of prior groundwork at the official level talks. Before convening the fifth round of ministerial-level talks, official-level discussions are vital to gain significant results in the ministerial-level deliberations,” an official said.

The ministerial-level meeting of the two northeastern states was held in Aizawl on August 9 last year after 21 months and was the first meeting after the Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), led by Chief Minister Lalduhoma, came to power in Mizoram in 2023.

After the August 9 meeting in Aizawl, Assam Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora, who led his state's delegation, had said the discussions were positive and both states were committed to finding a way to amicably resolve the border dispute.

Mizoram Home Minister Sapdanga, had earlier said that as per the decision of the third ministerial-level meeting held in Guwahati in November 2022, the state government has already submitted a list of 62 border villages to the Assam government that are within the Mizoram territory.

The border dispute dates back to 1972, when Mizoram—then a district of Assam—was granted Union Territory status. The boundary, vaguely defined under the North-East Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971, lacked clear ground demarcation.

Mizoram claims 509 square miles of reserved forest, notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR), 1873, as its own. Assam, however, adheres to a boundary drawn on a 1933 Survey of India map.

Tensions peaked on July 26, 2021, when the Assam and Mizoram Police exchanged fire near Vairengte village along National Highway 306, resulting in the deaths of six Assam Police personnel and injuries to several others.

With inputs from agencies.