Assam informs Mizoram that the claimed villages have no Mizo habitation

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: After a thorough verification, the Assam Government has informed the Mizoram government that the villages that the neighbouring state claimed as theirs have no Mizo habitation. Dispur has further requested Mizoram to share information if the villages concerned have any Mizo population.

On November 17, 2022, the Assam and Mizoram governments had a meeting in Guwahati to resolve boundary issues amicably. The meeting took the decision that the Mizoram government would submit the list of villages that they claimed as theirs. This year, the Mizoram government sent a list of 60 villages, claiming them as theirs.

The Border Protection and Development Department of the Assam Government sent that list to the respective district commissioners in the Barak Valley. After field verification, the three district commissioners of the Barak Valley informed Dispur that the villages that the Mizoram government claimed as theirs have no Mizo habitation.

The Border Protection and Development Department took up the matter with the Mizoram Government in the backdrop of the field verification reports from the district commissioners of the Barak Valley districts. The department sent a letter to the Mizoram government stating that, according to the field verification reports of the Barak Valley district commissioners, the villages that Mizoram claimed as theirs have no Mizoram habitation. It said that if Mizoram has any information regarding Mizo habitations in the villages concerned, it (Mizoram) should share that information with Assam. The department also sought Mizoram’s date for the next round of talks on boundary issues between the two states. In its reply letter, the Mizoram government said that they prefer to sit for boundary issues with Assam after the Lok Sabha election.

Talks between Assam and Mizoram began soon after the Lailapur incident of 2021, in which six Assam Police personnel were killed in an exchange of fire between the police forces of both states at Lailapur in the Cachar district. According to the Survey of India, Assam and Mizoram share a boundary of 164.6 km.

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