Aizawl: Mizoram Home Minister K. Sapdanga on Thursday reiterated that the state government opposes the Centre’s plan to fence the Mizoram section of the Indo-Myanmar border.
Speaking in the state assembly, Sapdanga said that while fencing the international border falls under the Union government’s jurisdiction, the Centre is coordinating with the Assam Rifles and assessing the matter.
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He added that the Mizoram government, as a landowner, has expressed its concerns but also supported the Centre’s broader initiatives regarding border management.
The minister referred to the assembly resolution passed on 28 February 2024, which opposed both the fencing plan and the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with Myanmar.
The resolution also urged the Modi government to take steps to unify the Zo ethnic people, divided across countries due to colonial-era policies, under one administrative unit.
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Sapdanga noted that the state cabinet had previously objected to the fencing plan and that letters were sent to the Lok Sabha secretariat in March 2024 and the Home Ministry in April 2024 to communicate the assembly’s and cabinet’s stance.
Mizoram shares a 510-km-long border with Myanmar’s Chin state, and the ethnic Mizo population shares strong ties with the Chins. Currently, over 29,000 refugees from Chin state, displaced after the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, are taking shelter in Mizoram.
The state government is also conducting biometric enrollment for Myanmar nationals and asylum seekers from Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
Civil society organizations and student bodies, including the Young Mizo Association (YMA), have strongly opposed the Centre’s decision, citing concerns that fencing and lifting the FMR could disrupt ethnic ties and traditional movement across the border.