Assam-Mizoram to resume border talks after over a year

Mizoram and Assam will resume border talks in August, twenty months after the two northeastern neighbours held discussions to find an amicable solution to the inter-state boundary dispute.
    
Mizoram Home Minister K Sapdanga on Monday said the next round of border talks will be held in Aizawl on August 9.

The two states held the last round of talks in November 2022 in Guwahati.
    
"The Assam home secretary last week communicated to our home secretary about their intention to come to Aizawl on August 9 for talks. We conveyed our consent to the Assam government after consulting Chief Minister Lalduhoma," Sapdanga told PTI.
   
The Mizoram delegation would be headed by Sapdanga, while the Assam team would be led by its Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora.
    
Sapdanga expressed optimism that the talks will yield positive results to bring an amicable solution to the border dispute which remained unresolved for decades.

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Although Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had in February this year agreed to send Bora to Mizoram in March, no further steps could be taken due to the Lok Sabha elections, according to Sapdanga.
    
He said there was no violation of the status quo from both sides since the violent clash in July 2021 when police forces of the two states exchanged fire at the inter-state boundary, leading to the death of six policemen and a civilian from Assam.
    
Three Mizoram districts - Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit - share a 164.6 km border with Assam's Cachar, Karmganj and Hailankandi districts.
    
The dispute mainly stemmed from two colonial demarcations - 1875 and 1933.
    
Mizoram claims that 509 square miles area of the inner line reserved forest, notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) 1873, falls within its territory. Assam, on the other hand, regarded the map prepared by the Survey of India in 1933 as its constitutional boundary.
    
Vast areas within the inner line reserved forest now fall under Assam.
    
Similarly, a certain extent of the area, as per the 1933 demarcation line, is now on the Mizoram side.
    
There is no ground demarcation of boundaries between the two states.
    
The two states have held several rounds of talks, including three ministerial-level meetings since August 2021 and agreed to maintain peace along the boundary and resolve the dispute through dialogue.