Aizawl: A five-member Mizoram delegation headed by home minister Lalchamliana would leave for Guwahati on Wednesday to resume talks with Assam to resolve the inter-state border dispute, a senior home department official said on Tuesday.
The official said that members of the delegation would leave for Guwahati both by flight and road.
While the third round of ministerial-level talk would be held at 11 am on Thursday, officials of both states would meet around 5 pm on Wednesday, he said.
Home minister Lalchamliana will be accompanied by land revenue and settlement minister Lalruatkima, commissioner and secretary H. Lalengmawia and two senior officials of the home department, he said.
Mizoram shares a 164-6 km long inter-state boundary with Assam and the border dispute between the two states is a long-standing issue, which remained unresolved for decades.
While Mizoram claimed the 509 square miles stretch of the inner line reserve forest notified by the British in 1875 as its actual boundary, Assam accepted the map prepared by a survey of India in 1933 as its constitutional boundary. However, there is no ground demarcation of the boundary between the two states, according to officials.
After the border standoff in 1994, sporadic skirmishes occurred along the inter-state boundary since 2018.
In March 2018, more than 60 people, including journalists covering the standoff, were injured in a clash between protesters and Assam police when Mizoram’s apex student body Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) attempted to construct a resting shed in a paddy field claimed by the MZP as belonged to Mizoram’s first chief minister Ch. Chhunga at Zophai area near Bairabi in Kolasib district contiguous to Assam’s Hailakandi district.
The border dispute had taken an ugly turn in July last year when police forces of the two states exchanged fire leading to the death of six policemen and a civilian from Aizawl.
More than 60 people were also injured in the violent clash that took place in the disputed area near Mizoram’s Vairengte village on the National Highway-306.
The violent clash was followed by an economic blockade imposed on the lifeline of Mizoram (NH-306) by locals of Lailapur village in Assam.
The two states began talks from August last year and agreed to resolve the dispute through dialogue besides maintaining peace along the inter-state border.
Since then both delegations have held two rounds of talks and five virtual meetings over the border issue.
Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma have also met twice in New Delhi in November last year and September this year to find an amicable solution to the vexed border dispute.
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