Bhubaneswar: Expressing concern over the forcible entry of AP officials into the Kotiya panchayat of Koraput district, the state government said it is exploring legal options to tackle it.
Revealing this here Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Maheswar Mohanty said he reviewed the situation in the disputed area and the development projects there.
“Andhra Pradesh has forcibly entered our Kotiya panchayat. The panchayat is in our list and the Election Commission of India (ECI) has also put the panchayat in our jurisdiction. We are consulting the Law department for opinion to take up the issue,” Mohanty told reporters.
“We are exploring the legal options on whether to move to court or Parliament or Centre, etc. As per Constitution, no state can change its geographical boundary. The court will not also intervene in such cases. We are examining it.” he said.
Stating the panchayat is not a cut off area, the minister said, there is no problem of communication with the panchayat. Only one 15 km length road has not been constructed as no one is coming forward to take up the contract. It was decided to construct the road soon, he stated.
All villages in the disputed panchayat have been electrified, the enrolment in schools is also quite good, community health centre is also functioning there, he said, adding, all welfare schemes of state government is also reaching there. But AP officials are forcibly entering the villages and trying to lure people, the minister said.
“We will protest the entry of AP into our panchayat. Our officials and we (ministers) will also visit the area to win the confidence of the people in the state government,” he said.
Around 10 days back, bus services were introduced in Kotiya panchayat in Pottangi block on the Deomali hill range. The process is on to ply more government buses to the area.
Orissa and AP have been engaged in a tug of war since 1968 over ownership of 21 of the 28 villages under Kotiya panchayat in the district.
Admin visits border villages eyed by AP
Patrapur: A day after Orissa Post published a report on the plight of border villages in Ganjam district that were on the radar of the Andhra Pradesh government, the state administration swung into action Wednesday. A team of officials including Berhampur sub-collector Sidharth Shankar Swain, tehsildar Pranati Priyadarshini Rout, BDO Lalit Kumar Kunwar, Jarada IIC Bhawani Shankar Khuntia, Block education officer (BEO) Abhiram Behera, CDPO Padmini Sahu and other senior officials visited the villages and launched an awareness campaign. The officials, who had never set foot in the hilly villages so far, trekked through forests to reach the village and held meets with the tribals, a report said.
PNN
