The Mizoram government has ferried fuel and cooking gas from neighbouring Manipur and Tripura due to the blockade on National Highway 306 in Assam’s Cachar district.
The blockade entered the fourth day on Saturday as the deadlock at border has been continuing since Wednesday despite a series of high level meetings.
Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday that solving the inter-state border disputes of Assam with other northeastern states is top of the agenda for the party.
He said the Central government would take up the issue after the Assam polls that are five to six months away.
Mizoram’s food, civil supplies and consumer affairs Minister K. Lalrinliana said that two trucks have been sent to Manipur to bring LPG cylinders and five more oil tankers are being sent to the state.
The department’s director Lalhriatzuali Ralte said with the help of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, similar efforts are on to bring transport fuel and LPG from Tripura.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla also held his second meeting, through video conference, with the Chief Secretaries of Assam and Mizoram.
A senior official in Aizawl said on Saturday that Bhalla urged both Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna and his Mizoram counterpart Lalnunmawia Chuaungo to take steps to withdraw security personnel from the inter-state border.
While the Assam Chief Secretary said that he has instructed Cachar Deputy Commissioner (DC) Keerthi Jalli to ensure that the blockade is lifted, the Mizoram Chief Secretary informed that a few policemen deployed along the border would not be withdrawn till people on the Assam side stopped the activities that could “harm public harmony and create panic”.
The inter-state border trouble resurfaced after a fortnight on Wednesday along Assam’s Cachar and Karimganj districts, which share mountainous borders with two Mizoram districts Mamit and Kolasib.