Aizawl: Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma would hold a meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday, 3 days later than the earlier schedule, an official in the Chief Minister Office (CMO) said on Tuesday.
Earlier, the meeting was scheduled to be held on Monday (September 19), but it had to be postponed as Sarma returned to his state for an emergency.
The CMO official said that both the chief ministers would now meet on Wednesday at Assam House in New Delhi to find an amicable solution to the vexed border dispute.
The meeting will be at 1 pm and Zoramthanga is likely to be accompanied by state planning board vice chairman H. Rammawi, who is also now in Delhi, the official added.
This is the second meeting between the two chief ministers on the border issue.
In November last year, the two leaders met in New Delhi in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and agreed to form panels of their own involving all stakeholders to resolve the border dispute through dialogue. They had also agreed to have chief minister-level talks from time to time.
Meanwhile, an official of the Mizoram home department said that the date for the next round of minister-level talks between Mizoram and Assam scheduled to be held in Guwahati next month is yet to be fixed.
He said that the matter would be discussed when state home minister Lalchamliana, who is now on leave due to poor health, joined office.
The delegations of Mizoram led by Lalchamliana and Assam headed by border protection and development minister Atul Bora had met in Aizawl on August 9 a year after both the delegations held their first talks in August last year to find a lasting solution to the vexed border dispute.
During the last meeting, both sides agreed to maintain peace along the border and decided to meet again at Guwahati in October besides reaffirming the joint declaration they had made during their first meeting.
In the first meeting, both sides agreed to amicably resolve the border dispute through dialogues and maintaining peace and harmony along the inter-state border.
Both delegations have also organised three virtual meetings so far.
Mizoram shares a 164.6 km long inter-state border with Assam.
The border dispute between the two states is a long-standing issue, which remained unresolved till now. Mizoram was part of Assam until 1972 when it was carved out as a Union Territory.
The border dispute mainly came out of two colonial notifications- the inner line reserved forest notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) in 1875 and the boundary indicated in the Survey of India’s Map in 1933. While Mizoram claimed the 509 square miles stretch of the inner line reserved forest as its actual boundary, Assam said the 1933 boundary is its constitutional boundary.
The border has been witnessing skirmishes, especially since 1994 and it has become frequent since 2018. More than 60 people were injured when functionaries of Mizoram’s apex student body- Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) clashed with Assam police at Zophai in the disputed area near Bairabi town in Kolasib district in March 2018.
The border dispute between the two neighbouring states turned ugly in July last year when police forces of the two states exchanged fire on the disputed area near Vairengte village on the National Highway-306 leading to the death of six policemen and a civilian from Assam.
Around 60 people had also been injured in the violent clash, which was followed by a blockade organised by residents of Assam’s Laipur village on NH-306, the lifeline of Mizoram for nearly a month.
Tension was defused later with the intervention of the Centre and when both states agreed to hold talks.
Also read | Assam-Mizoram border dispute: Zoramthanga, Himanta’s Delhi meet postponed