Bhubaneswar: The BJD Sunday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to resolve the decades-old dispute between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh over the Kotia cluster of villages, amid the southern state issuing a notification to hold panchayat polls in the area November 3.
Senior BJD leaders Pradeep Majhi and Bhrugu Buxipatra made the demand at a press conference here, hours before the PM arrived in the state to inaugurate the Reserve Bank of India’s data centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute at Jatni.
“The BJD would like to suggest that Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi request the PM to intervene in the Kotia issue and resolve it,” Pradeep Majhi said.
The BJD leaders urged Majhi to personally take up the matter with Modi if the CM was genuinely concerned about the issue.
The Opposition leaders lambasted the ‘double-engine’ government in the state for failing to “resist Andhra Pradesh’s intrusion into Odisha’s territory to conduct panchayat elections”.
“The BJD holds the chief minister accountable if Andhra Pradesh conducts panchayat elections in Kotia villages on November 3.
The elections would be considered Majhi’s failure to protect the state’s territory,” Buxipatra said.
The AP government has issued a notification to conduct panchayat elections in three disputed villages — Phagunasineri, Ganjeipadar and Phatusineri — in Kotia gram panchayat.
The BJD alleged that leaders of different political parties in AP were campaigning for their respective candidates in the Kotia area while the Odisha administration remained a mute spectator.
The BJD leaders alleged that the BJP government has failed to address the issues of Kotia residents and claimed that development took place in the area during the chief ministership of Naveen Patnaik.
“In the last two-and-a-half years of the ‘double-engine government’, Odisha has faced setbacks in the border dispute with Andhra Pradesh, as the NDA government could not antagonise the southern state because they need the ruling TDP’s support for survival at the Centre,” Pradeep Majhi alleged.
He said the BJD would be on the ground in Kotia and prevent elections in the area.
BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik had written to the CM, seeking his intervention in the Kotia issue.
Referring to the BJP’s election manifesto ahead of the 2024 elections, the leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly had questioned the BJP government over its “failure to fulfil its promise to resolve the issue”.
The dispute is before the Supreme Court, and the residents of these villages enjoy dual voting rights in both states.
As both states claim the Kotia area, the Odisha government had filed a case over the matter before the Supreme Court in 1968.
The Apex Court had in 2006 asked both states to maintain status quo and observed that an inter-state boundary dispute is best resolved by Parliament under Article 131 of the Constitution.
The state government had again in 2022 filed a contempt of court petition against AP after it held rural polls in Kotia villages in 2021.
Two days ago, the Odisha government filed another case before the Apex Court, opposing the AP government’s notification for panchayat polls.
“As the Andhra Pradesh government does not abide by the Supreme Court’s order, the Odisha government has fi led another petition before the apex court,” Revenue Minister Suresh Pujari had said.
He had directed the Koraput district collector to monitor the situation and do the needful to safeguard the state’s interests.
