‘Centre can only facilitate amicable settlement between Assam and Mizoram’

With the Assam-Mizoram border dispute hotting up, killing five Assam cops in its wake yesterday, the Central government today said that it could play the role of a facilitator for amicable settlement only.

Replying to the queries over the dispute, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said that seven such disputes exist in the country. “As per available information, there are boundary disputes arising out of demarcation of boundaries and claims and counter claims over territories between Haryana-Himachal Pradesh, UT of Ladakh-Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra-Karnataka, Assam-Arunachal Pradesh, Assam-Nagaland, Assam-Meghalaya and Assam-Mizoram,” he said.

Intermittent protests and violent incidents from the disputed border areas are not unusual, the Minister said: “The approach of the Central Government has consistently been that inter-state disputes can be resolved only with the cooperation of the state governments concerned and that the Central government acts only as a facilitator for amicable settlement of the dispute in the spirit of mutual understanding.”

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, scheduled to visit Silchar today, tweeted earlier that “clear evidences are emerging” about the Mizoram Police using light machine guns against the Assam Police personnel. “This is sad, unfortunate and speaks volumes about the intention and gravity of the situation,” Sarma tweeted.

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga, however, had a different version of the event. He had a Twitter battle with his Assam counterpart. In a tweet, he said, “Dear Himantaji, after cordial meeting of CMs by Hon’ble Shri @amitshah ji, surprisingly 2 companies of Assam Police with civilians lathicharged & tear gassed civilians at Vairengte Auto Rickshaw stand inside Mizoram today. They even overrun CRPF personnel/Mizoram Police.”

Two days before the Monday violence, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had met all the Chief Ministers of the North-Eeast at Shillong. After the flare-up on Monday, Shah called up the two Chief Ministers concerned, urging them to resolve the border issue amicably, according to the news agency ANI.