Aizawl, Apr 16 (PTI) A seven-member Mizoram delegation will leave for Guwahati on April 24 to engage in official-level discussions with Assam to resolve the long-standing boundary dispute between the two northeastern states, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The delegation will be headed by Home Secretary Vanlalmawia, while the Assam team is likely to be led by a principal secretary or secretary of the neighbouring state’s Border Protection and Development Department, he said.

The meeting is scheduled to be held in Guwahati on April 25.

The official said the meeting will focus on preparing and finalising the groundwork and modalities for the next round of ministerial-level talks.

It will also deal with technicalities related to the border issue, he said.

The last and fourth round of ministerial-level talks was held in Aizawl on August 9 last year.

Three Mizoram districts – Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit – share a 164.6-km border with Assam’s Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts.

The decades-old border dispute mainly stemmed from two conflicting colonial-era demarcations – one from 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) and another from 1933.

Mizoram claims that 509 square miles of the Inner Line Reserved Forest (ILRF) delineated in 1875 under the BEFR as its legitimate area or boundary.

In contrast, Assam asserts the border defined by a 1933 map prepared by the Survey of India in 1933 as its constitutional boundary.

As a result, both states lay claim to overlapping areas, with no ground demarcation conducted till date, officials said. PTI CORR RBT