Imphal: After 28 years, Manipur will finally reconstruct the district boundaries and draw up a map.

The districts of the states do not have boundary maps, after land records, maps and other documents were reduced to ashes in a major fire that engulfed the then deputy commissioner's office at Laphel in Imphal West in 1990.

At that time Manipur had only nine districts - four in the valley and five in the hills.

The number of districts rose to 16 after the then Congress government, led by Okram Ibobi Singh, created seven new districts in December, 2016.

"A boundary commission, headed by a retired high court Justice M. Binodkumar, is conducting surveys of the districts. The commission will submit its report within six months," revenue minister Karam Shyam Singh told the state Assembly on Monday during question hour.

Shyam Singh said the team has completed the survey of all the six valley districts. Survey of seven districts in the hills is about to be completed and the survey in three more districts in the hills is yet to begin.

"After the commission submits its report the government will examine it and act accordingly," Shyam Singh said.

When Opposition Congress member S. Bira Singh wanted to know if the MLAs can be part of the survey work so as to avoid disputes, the revenue minister said claims and counterclaims would be considered once the commission submits its report.

Shyam said there are no maps of the then nine districts because of the devastating fire.

Finalisation of the districts maps will prove to be an uphill task for the Biren Singh government as the United Naga Council (UNC) had strongly opposed the creation of the new districts.

On learning that the Ibobi Singh government was planning to create new districts, the UNC had demanded that all the stakeholders be consulted and arrive at a consensus before the districts were created.

Ignoring the demand the Ibobi Singh government created the new districts by bifurcating seven of the then existing nine districts.

The UNC, the apex body of the Naga community in Manipur, is engaged in tripartite talks with the state government and the Centre on the creation of the new districts. The UNC has been opposing the creation of the districts because it had scattered Naga villages in various districts.

The last round of talks was held on November 10 last year and the meeting fixed the next round on February 23. The UNC has been demanding a rollback of the creation of the new districts.