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Mizoram, Assam agree to maintain cordial relations between police forces

Aug 24, 2022 07:48 PM IST

The border dispute between Mizoram and Assam is a long-standing issue and stem from two colonial demarcations in 1875 and 1933

AIZAWL: Mizoram and Assam on Wednesday agreed to maintain cordial relations between police forces posted along the inter-state border, an official statement said.

Deputy commissioners of five border districts - two from Mizoram and three from Assam - on Wednesday held a meeting at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp on the MIzoram-Assam border to discuss the border issue. (Twitter/airnews_aizawl)
Deputy commissioners of five border districts - two from Mizoram and three from Assam - on Wednesday held a meeting at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp on the MIzoram-Assam border to discuss the border issue. (Twitter/airnews_aizawl)

Both sides also agreed to take measures to ensure that economic activities continue undisturbed along the border and that farmers are allowed to work at their farms on either side of the state border, the statement said.

The statement was issued after deputy commissioners of five border districts - two from Mizoram and three from Assam - on Wednesday held a meeting at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp on the MIzoram-Assam border to discuss the border issue. The meeting was held pursuant to a decision by ministers of the two states who held talks on August 9.

The meeting also discussed forging collective efforts to protect forest areas along the state border, preventing hunting and illegal transportation of wild animals and facilitating the selling of Mizoram-grown areca nuts in the neighbouring states.

The ongoing construction of bridges near Mizoram’s Thinghlun village and Zophai on the Mizoram-Assam border by Mizoram was also discussed.

Three Mizoram’s districts- Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit- share a 164.6 km long boundary with Assam’s Hailakandi, Karimganj and Cachar districts.

The border dispute between the two states is a long-standing issue, which stemmed from two colonial demarcations in 1875 and 1933.

Mizoram believed that a 509 square mile stretch of inner line reserved forest notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) 1873, a certain section of which now falls under Assam, is the actual boundary of the state.

Assam on the other hand claimed that the boundary as per a Survey of India’s map in 1933 is the constitutional boundary of the state.

Certain areas, which are now occupied by Mizoram, fall under the 1933 demarcation.

However, there are no proper ground demarcations between the two neighbouring states especially after Mizoram was carved out as a Union Territory from Assam in 1972.

The border dispute turned ugly on July 26 last year when police forces of the two neighbouring states opened fire near Vairengte on the NH-306 leading to the death of six policemen and a civilian from Assam.

Around 60 people were also injured in the violent clash.

On August 9, both the states held a ministerial-level meeting in Aizawl and agreed to promote and maintain peace along the borders.

According to a joint statement issued later, both parties agreed to hold meetings of deputy commissioners of bordering districts at least once in two months. Both sides also agreed that economic activities, including cultivation and farming, which have been practised by the people on either side of the borders should not be disturbed and decided to hold the next round of talks in October.

Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma also agreed to hold chief minister-level talks in Delhi either in the last part of August or early September to resolve the vexed border dispute. The two leaders met in Delhi last year under the chairmanship of Union home minister Amit Shah.

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