Mizoram cabinet yet to adopt resolution opposing FMR scrapping: Home Minister

The Mizoram Council of ministers is yet to pass a resolution opposing the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with neighbouring Myanmar. This was informed in the assembly by Home Minister K Sapdanga on Monday.

He said that the state government has come to learn about the plan to scrap the FMR with Myanmar only through reports in a section of the media.

Thousands of people from the neighbouring country have taken refuge in Mizoram following a military coup in Myanmar in 2021.

The Centre earlier this month ended the FMR, which allows people residing close to the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km into each other’s territory without visa.

“The Council of ministers is yet to pass any resolution to oppose the lifting of the FMR as it learned the matter through only media reports. However, the matter has been proposed to be tabled at the Council of ministers meeting,” Sapdanga said.

Earlier, Chief Minister Lalduhoma had said that his government wanted the FMR to be retained claiming that the Mizo people living in India and Myanmar can’t accept the present international border, because it was demarcated by the British without consulting the Mizo people.

Mizoram NGO Coordination Committee, a conglomerate of five major civil society organisations and student bodies, including Central Young Mizo Association (CYMA) and Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) has also opposed the move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR.

A large section of the people of Myanmar who have taken refuge in the state belong to the Chin, also known as the Zo, community. They share the same ancestry and culture as the Mizos of Mizoram. Chin is also a state in western Myanmar.