A sign board welcoming people to Assam in now giving sleepless nights to Mizoram administration.

The long-standing boundary dispute between Mizoram and the parent state of Assam might snowball into a bloody confrontation between the two states which has the potential to damage the prospects of Chief Minister Zoramthanga-led Mizo National Front (MNF) government in Mizoram in the 2008 Assembly polls. The dispute resurfaced during the latter part of last year and has become a major political issue in the state where opposition parties took advantage of the alleged inaction of the government.

The activities of the deputy commissioner of Assam’s Hailakandi District, who erected a ‘welcome to Assam’ signboard at Zophai Hamlet near Mizoram’s lone railway station, of Bairabi earned the wrath of  Mizos living in the area who claimed the land belonged to them. The DC not only put up the controversial signboard but also ordered the destruction of a   farmers’ hut constructed by the Mizoram agriculture department under integrated wasteland development programme.

Two Mizo student leaders were arrested by Hailakandi district police in December for allegedly trying to blow up a police observatory tower at Zophai, the area considered by Mizos as well inside Mizoram. The boundary dispute had almost resulted in an armed confrontation between the police of both the states near Mizoram-Cachar District (Assam) border village of Vairengte in 1994. However, it was avoided after the intervention of the union home ministry which finally acknowledged there was a dispute between the two neighbouring states.

A recent meeting of all the state’s recognized political parties here agreed that the boundary between the two states should be as notified in 1875 under the provisions of Eastern Bengal Frontier Regulation Act, 1873. “The inner-line of the Inner Line Reserved Forest as described in the notification of 1875 should be based while setting the boundary dispute,” the political parties had said.

Meanwhile, the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) or the Mizo Students Federation through The North East Students Organisation (NESCO) urged the Centre to constitute a boundary commission to settle boundary disputes in North East.

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