Aizawl: According to this official statement, Mizoram and Assam decided on Friday to work together to find a solution to the protracted inter-state border dispute.
Over dinner on Friday morning, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Mizoram counterpart Lalduhoma—who is currently in Guwahati—discussed the border dispute.
It stated that Mr. Lalduhoma and Mr. Sarma decided to work together to find a solution to the border dispute between the two northeastern states during the meeting.
Both leaders also agreed to maintain peace along the borders as long as the two neighbouring states hold border talks, it said.
Mr Sarma told Mr Lalduhoma that he will send the minister in charge of border to Mizoram when the ongoing budget session of the Assam assembly is over.
Three Mizoram districts – Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit – share a 164.6 km long border with Assam’s Cachar, Karimganj and Hailankandi districts.
The border dispute between the two neighbouring states is a long-standing issue, which mainly stemmed from two colonial demarcations.
Mizoram claims that 509 square miles area of the inner line reserved forest, notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) 1873, falls within its territory. Assam, on the other hand, regarded the border shown in a map prepared by the Survey of India in 1933 as its constitutional boundary.
Assam currently controls a sizable portion of the inner line reserved forest. In a similar vein, a portion of the region that was originally marked off in 1933 is now in Mizoram. The boundaries between the two states are not marked by a ground demarcation.
In July 2021, the border dispute between Mizoram and Assam took a negative turn when the police forces of the two states engaged in gunfire at the inter-state boundary, resulting in the deaths of six police officers and an Assamese civilian.
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