62 villages along Assam border located in our territory, claims Mizoram minister

Mizoram’s Home Minister Lalchamliana on Friday (July 14) asserted that a minimum of 62 villages, situated within the inner line reserved forest along the border with Assam, are part of Mizoram’s territory.

For years, Mizoram has been claiming that a 509 square-mile (1,318 square kilometres) area of inner line reserved forest under the 1875 Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) as its actual boundary.

Assam, on the other hand, claims that the boundary as per the Survey of India’s map of 1933 is the constitutional boundary.

Three districts of Mizoram – Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit – share a 164.6 km long inter-state border with three Assam districts – Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj.

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Lalchamliana said Mizoram had submitted its claim to the Assam government in February. “We submitted our claim to Assam in February. We are waiting a response from them,” the home minister told PTI.

He said the next round of border talks with Assam is yet to be decided.

Mizoram and Assam have held 3 rounds of ministerial-level talks to resolve the long pending inter-state border dispute.

In addition, the two neighbouring states have also held virtual meetings on several occasions.

The dispute had taken an ugly turn in July 2021 when police forces of the two states exchanged fire at the inter-state boundary, leading to the death of six policemen and a civilian from Assam.

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More than 60 people were also injured in the violent clash that took place in the disputed area near Mizoram’s Vairengte village.

Following the incident, the two neighbouring states began high-level delegation talks from August 2021 to resolve the vexed border dispute.

In the last border talks held in Guwahati in November 2022, both delegations had decided that Mizoram will furnish the list of villages, their areas, geo-spatial extent, and ethnicity of the people and other relevant information within three months to support its claim which can be examined by setting up regional committees from both sides to arrive at an amicable resolution to the vexed border issue.

In January, the Mizoram government had formed a study group and submitted its claim next month.

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma had also met twice in New Delhi in November 2021 and September last year to find an amicable solution to the border dispute.

(With agency inputs)