Guwahati, March 21 (PTI): A three-member high-level team of the union home ministry will visit the troubled areas along the Assam-Mizoram border early next week to review the situation there and suggest measures to avoid further tension, an official source said.
The Hailkandi-Kolasib area on the inter-state border witnessed violence on February 27 when Mizoram students body Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) tried to construct a rest house on NH 154. The Assam police had resorted to lathicharge to control the protesting students and among others a woman journalist was also injured.
MZP has said the land at Zophai in Kolasib of Mizoram was given to the students union by the widow of the first Mizoram chief minister Ch Chhunga
“The team will visit the areas in Hailakandi district of Assam and adjoining Kolasib in Mizoram during early next week, most likely on March 27. It will prepare a report and submit it to the union home secretary,”, the official source told PTI here.
The team will comprise the joint secretary (north east) in the union home ministry and the principal secretaries to the home departments of Assam and Mizoram government.
Their report will be reviewed by the union home secretary with the chief secretaries of the two states for the next course of action in the area.
Subsequently, the union home secretary will give the report to the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who is in constant touch with the Assam and Mizoram chief ministersm, the source said.
The decision was taken at a meeting yesterday in Delhi convened by the union home secretary and attended by the chief secretaries of both the states.
It was decided in the meeting to maintain status quo at the spot and both the state governments reiterated their commitment to maintain peace and resolve the issues amicably.
Assembly of people at the site will not be allowed and both the state governments will take all measures to maintain peace in their respective areas, the source added.
