After meeting Amit Shah, Assam-Mizoram to form panels to solve border row

The chief ministers of both Assam and Mizoram also agreed to maintain peace and tranquillity along the interstate border. Frequent CM-level talks to address contentious issues will also be held from now on.

Exactly four months after violent clashes between police forces of both states left six Assam policemen dead, Assam and Mizoram agreed on Friday to resolve their contentious boundary dispute by forming committees and through discussions.

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and Mizoram CM Zoramthanga at a meeting in Delhi on Friday to discuss the border dispute between the two states. (PTI PHOTO.)

Chief Ministers of both the north-eastern states took the step following a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi.

On Thursday, both Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Mizoram counterpart Zoramthanga had interacted in Delhi over an informal dinner meeting—the first interaction between both leaders since the July 26 clashes at Lailapur on the Assam-Mizoram border.

“(It’s) heartening to share that I along with honourable Chief Minister of Mizoram Zoramthanga, met honourable home minister Amit Shah this evening in New Delhi. We reaffirmed our resolve to maintain peace and tranquillity at our borders,” Sarma tweeted after the meeting.

“It has been decided that both the states will constitute committees for resolving the border disputes through discussions. Towards this end, chief minister level talks will also take place from time to time. We are grateful to Union home minister for his kind guidance and support,” he added.

Sources at the Assam CM’s office said that details on constitution of the committees will be disclosed at a later date. It is expected that they could be on the lines of similar committees formed by Assam and Meghalaya governments this year to address the border dispute between the two states.

Assam and Meghalaya have formed three committees comprising ministers, bureaucrats and stakeholders of both states to resolve disputes at 6 of the 12 border points of contention between the two neighbours. The committees, which visited each disputed site, are to file their reports by November 30.

Assam and Mizoram share a 164.6 km long inter-state border and there has been a long-standing dispute on the exact boundary. On Mizoram’s side the border districts are Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit, while on Assam’s side, the border sharing districts are Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj.

After the firing between the police of both the states at Cachar’s Lailapur on July 26 this year, there were several rounds of talks between both states under the Central government’s intervention, but Friday’s meeting was the first official one between the two chief ministers.