Agartala, July 12 (IANS) Senior officials of Tripura and Mizoram will soon hold talks to discuss the long-pending inter-state border dispute along the 109-km boundary shared by the two northeastern states, officials said here on Sunday.

A senior official said Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha has taken the initiative to revive the dialogue with Mizoram to resolve the long-standing border issue through mutual discussions.

Addressing an official function here on Saturday, CM Saha said he had discussed the inter-state border dispute with Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma during the 73rd plenary session of the North Eastern Council (NEC) held in Shillong.

“When I proposed to the Mizoram Chief Minister that we should hold talks to resolve the inter-state border dispute, he immediately agreed,” CM Saha said.

“I suggested that before a Chief Minister-level meeting, senior officials of both states should first sit together and discuss the issue in detail. Thereafter, we can meet and take the matter forward. The Mizoram Chief Minister readily agreed to my proposal,” he added.

The 73rd NEC plenary session was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of State for DoNER Sukanta Majumdar, and the Governors and Chief Ministers of all eight northeastern states.

Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on its southern, western and northern sides. The state shares an 856-km international border with Bangladesh, accounting for nearly 84 per cent of its total boundary. It also has a 53-km inter-state border with Assam and a 109-km border with Mizoram. The border dispute between Tripura and Mizoram has remained unresolved for several years.

Tensions often surface whenever either state undertakes development or construction work in areas claimed by both sides, with the other state raising objections. In one such incident, unidentified miscreants in May last year hurled moderate-intensity explosives at an under-construction tourism building at Phuldungsei village along the Tripura-Mizoram border in North Tripura district, causing substantial damage to the structure.

Following the blast, police officials from both Tripura and Mizoram visited the mountainous border village to assess the situation and maintain peace. Soon after the incident, Tripura Tourism and Transport Minister Sushanta Chowdhury held a meeting with senior district officials at Jampui in North Tripura district and decided to reconstruct the damaged eco-tourism infrastructure.

Residents living on both sides of the inter-state border have long maintained that Phuldungsei village falls within the territorial claims of both Tripura and Mizoram, making it one of the disputed stretches between the two states. A Tripura Tourism Department official had earlier said that the damaged buildings were being constructed on forest land at Phuldungsei village for Rs 3.12 crore to promote tourism in the region. The project is being implemented under the Centre’s flagship Swadesh Darshan Scheme of the Union Tourism Ministry.

Following the explosion in May last year, both Tripura and Mizoram deployed additional security personnel in the area, while authorities of the two states closely monitored the situation to prevent any further escalation.

The Tripura government subsequently took up the matter with the Mizoram government through official channels.

Over the years, the district administrations of North Tripura district and Mizoram’s Mamit district, along with officials of the Survey of India, have held several rounds of discussions to resolve the disputed patches along the inter-state boundary.

Mizoram-based civil society groups and student organisations have, on several occasions, opposed construction activities undertaken by the Tripura government in areas they describe as “disputed inter-state border” stretches.

–IANS

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