AIZAWL:
Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma would hold negotiations on September 19 to find a permanent solution to the vexed inter-state boundary dispute, additional private secretary to Mizoram chief minister Peter Malsawmtluanga said on September 16.
Malsawmtluanga, who accompanied Zoramthanga in the latter’s Delhi trip, said over phone from Delhi that the two chief ministers held telephonic conversation on Friday morning and fixed the date for talks on border dispute.
Monday’s parleys would be the second round of talks between the chief ministers of the neighbouring states on the long-standing boundary disputes, as the two had met in Delhi on November 26 last year in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah.
Meanwhile, Mizoram home minister Lalchamliana said that the minister-level talks on the border dispute would be held during the last part of October in Guwahati.
Lalchamliana, who headed the state delegation in the two rounds of minister-level negotiations on the border issue last month, however, said that the exact date is yet to be fixed till date.
The first round of minister-level talks was held on August 5 last year in Aizawl during which Lalchamliana and land revenue minister Lalruatkima participated along with senior officials and the Assam delegation headed by Minister for Border Protection and Development Atul Bora comprised of minister for housing and urban affairs Ashok Singhal and border protection and development officials.
The second round of talks was held on August 9 by the same delegations in Aizawl headed by Lalchamliana and Bora accompanied by Lalruatkima and Singhal respectively.
A joint statement issued after the talks said that economic activities like cultivation and farming practiced by the people along the border areas would be allowed to continue regardless of the administrative control presently exercised by either state at such locations, subject to forest regulations and after informing the deputy commissioners concerned.
During the joint press conference on the same day, Bora said that the modalities for further talks would be worked out by the officials and would be deliberated in the next round of talks to be held in October in Guwahati.
He expressed the hope that the issue of constitution of a joint inspection team would also feature in the next round of talks.
Border dispute between the two neighbouring states have been lingering for half a century with the absence of ground demarcation and both the sides sticking to their guns.
Violent armed clashes at the Mizoram-Assam border at the outskirts of Vairengte town in Kolasib district on July 26, last year between the two state police personnel which resulted in the deaths of five Assam police personnel compelled the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the state governments of the two neighboring states to speed up negotiations to restore peace in the border areas and find long lasting solution to the border disputes.