Assam and Mizoram governments are likely to go for another round of border talks this year as Mizoram government has responded to the Assam government’s proposal for the resumption of talks to find an amicable solution to the vexed interstate border dispute, a senior state home department official said on Friday.
State home department officials said that the home department communicated with the Assam home department on Wednesday in response to the proposals recently made by the latter.
“We informed the Assam home department officials of our proposal to discuss the core issues in the official-level talks,” the official said.
He said that the state home department suggested that they should get down to the nitty-gritty of the problems and try to find solutions before holding ministerial-level negotiations.
The last round of border talks was held in Guwahati in November 2022, where the two sides decided Mizoram would list down the villages, the areas and other relevant information within three months to support its claim.
Regarding the formation of regional committees represented by officials of both states, the state home department suggested that the Assam government should first enlighten Mizoram officials about the regional committees being constituted with other states like Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, which also have long-standing interstate border disputes with Assam.
“We are still in the dark about the functions and usefulness of forming a regional committee,” officials said.
The Mizoram government, early this year, had submitted its claim on 62 villages in the Mizoram-Assam border disputed areas, along with the demographic and geographic conditions within Mizoram territory.
The prolonged interstate border disputes have for many times triggered violent activities along the 164-km border areas between the two neighbouring states.
However, no serious efforts have been made to solve the issue earlier.
Three districts of Mizoram — Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit — share a 164.6-km-long border with Assam. After the border dispute in July 2021, the two states are in talks to find a solution to the vexed issue.
In the last meeting held in Guwahati in November 2022, the two sides decided that Mizoram would 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.
The review meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura.
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