Assam-Mizoram border issue: Mizoram reiterates claim to 62 villages in border areas

Mizoram HM Lalchamliana said that there has been no official response from the Assam government on the claims to date

By Isaac Zoramsanga

Mizoram Home Minister Lalchamliana said on Sunday that the state government claimed 62 villages along the border with Assam, which are also claimed by Assam in the interstate boundary dispute between the two neighbouring states.

Lalchamliana said that the state home department had submitted its claims for lands to the Assam government in February, in which the 62 villages were mentioned.

“In accordance with the notification issued by the Governor-in-Council in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, around 509 square mile area within the inner line reserved forest was placed under the then Lushai country (Mizoram),” he said.

He said that there has been no official response from the Assam government on the claims to date.
The Home Minister also said that there has been no proposal of a date or place for the next round of talks to be held on the interstate border issue, as the ball is in Assam’s court.

Negotiations to find a lasting and amicable solution to the vexed interstate boundary between Mizoram and Assam had been going at a snail’s pace for years, which was sped up after a confrontation between the police personnel of the two states on July 26, 2022.

After a series of official-level talks, the first minister-level talks on the border dispute were held on August 5, 2021, and again on August 9, 2022, in Aizawl.

The third round of talks between the Mizoram delegation led by Lalchamliana and the Assam delegation led by border protection and development minister Atul Bora was held in Guwahati in November last year, after which the Mizoram state government submitted information and proposals to the Assam government during February.

Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma also held two rounds of talks in Delhi in 2021 and last year on the same issue.

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