Guwahati: Assam and Mizoram have decided to hold official level talks to resolve the long-standing interstate border dispute in Guwahati on April 25.
The state’s security sources said the Mizoram government has approved the visit of a delegation of seven members, which the state’s security sources said will be led by Mizoram Home Secretary Vanlalmawia. “We need to address all unresolved issues. During these negotiations, the way for future decisions between the two state governments should be finalized.”
Security sources said an official review has been proposed to prepare and determine the basis and approach of subsequent ministerial talks.
Importantly, the final round of ministerial dialogue was held in Aizawl on August 9, 2023. Mizoram is represented by Interior Minister K. Sapdanga, while the delegation of Assam is led by Atul Bora, Minister of Border Protection and Development. The joint statement issued after the meeting reiterated the earlier agreement and called for regular talks at the official and regional levels.
Both states are committed to maintaining peace and continuing dialogue, despite past border tensions and the deadly shooting on July 26, 2021.
The decades of border disputes stem primarily from two contradictory colonial era divisions – in 1875, the Eastern Border Regulations (BEFR), the other in 1933.
Mizoram claims that the 509 square miles of Inner Reserve Forest (ILRF) delineated under the BEFR in 1875 is its legal area or border.
By contrast, Assam claims that the boundary defined by the 1933 map prepared in 1933 by the 1933 Indian survey is its constitutional boundary.
Since August 2021, both states have held four rounds of ministerial talks to resolve decades-old border disputes.
