Mizo Zirlai Pawl flays Mizoram's ''appeasement'' policy on border dispute

Aizawl, Feb 26 : Mizo Zirlai Pawl, the apex students' body in the state, criticised the Mizoram government for its alleged appeasement policy towards the Assam government over disputed land between the two states. According to a statement of MZP, the Mizoram government's minor irrigation department had discontinued all the developmental activities in Mautuilui paddy fields following a notice from the Assam government.This is despite the fact that the area fell in Mizoram territory and the Mizo farmers have land settlement certificates on their paddy fields issued by the Mizoram government, he added.''Whereas the Assam government has carried out different activities such as road and building constructions in the disputed area without any objection from the Mizoram government, the Mizoram government has submitted itself to the Assam government's demands,'' the MZP statement said adding, ''This is shameful for the entire Mizos.'' Exhorting the Mizoram government to claim its ''rightful'' territory, the MZP statement said, ''The ongoing constructions of government schools and forest department quarters by the Assam government near Bairabi inside Mizoram territory must stopped.'' ''The Mizoram government must find permanent solution to the decades-old border dispute,'' the MZP urged.The border dispute has erupted from a disagreement on the notifications issued under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations, 1873 and the clarification of Innerline Reserved Forest on the border areas between the two states.In 1993, an armed confrontation between the police of the two states was averted.