Aizawl, Aug 9 : A powerful regional political party of Mizoram is demanding an expeditious and permanent settlement of the decades-old boundary dispute between Mizoram and Assam.
Sources in the 35-year-old Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) today said in Aizawl that their party, which formed the government twice in the state — June to November 1978 and again between 8 May 1979 and 4 May 1984 — with Brig. (Retd.) T. Sailo as chief minister, again pressed for fresh demarcation of the boundaries between the two states last week in a bid to find a lasting solution to the boundary tangle.
In a recent statement in Aizawl, the MPC said, “The party was deeply pained that its repeated pleas to the Centre for reintegrating the original landmass of the Mizo district as defined under the Northeast Bengal Frontier (Inner Line Regulations) Act of 1875 with the mainland Mizoram has fallen on deaf ears.”
MPC sources said the existing boundary between the two states was drawn under the Section 6 of the North Eastern Areas Reorganization (NEAR) Act in 1971.
The MPC made it clear that that this redrawn boundary was nothing but an “imposed boundary” and was incorporated allegedly at the behest of the Assam government.
According to MPC leader Zosiama Pauchau, the problem had escalated because both states keep failing to reach a consensus on the issue. While Assam demands demarcation on the basis of a map drawn on March 9, 1933, which was signed by the then chief secretary of Assam W.A. Cosgreve, the Mizoram government was pushing for re-demarcation on the basis of a map drawn on August 20, 1875, he said.
Senior leaders of the party also alleged that as many as 46 boundary pillars were set, as defined by the Inner Line Regulations Act, 1985, but in course of time, Assam forest officials had usurped as much as 509 sq km of lush jungle areas by gradually removing these pillars.
They said the border problem continues to sour the relations of the two states and unless this imbroglio was settled amicably it might snowball into a “great crisis”.
According to a MPC leader Zosiama Pauchau, the wrangles between the Mizoram government and Assam government continues to occupy the centre-stage between these two states with Assam consistently pitching for the demarcation of the two state’s boundary at their borders on the basis of a map drawn on 9 March 1933, and it was signed by the then chief secretary of the Assam government W A Cosgreve, and the Mizoram government plumping for the re-demarcation on the basis of a map drawn on August 20, 1875.
The map of the 1875, under the provisions of the section two of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations, drew the border lines of the then Lushai hills district of the Mizo tribe with Assam along the security outposts’ signposts, set up during the Lushai expedition by the British colonial government in the 1871—72 period.
The former chief minister of Assam Hiteswar Saikia and the present chief minister of Mizoram Lalthanhawla met at least twice to solve this border tangle during the eighties, but they could not bring about any breakthrough in this connection.
The DIG’s of both the states police force had also met a few times to clam the tensions that were generated in the borders of these two states in the wake of the allegations of .3 the encroachment as well as the trespass by the Mizoram’s police and forest departments in Assam’s border areas in Cachar and Hailakandi areas.
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