Koraput/Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Secretary SC Mohapatra Saturday said the state government is giving more emphasis on livelihood projects apart from the development of infrastructure like roads, bridges, schools and hospitals in Kotia cluster of villages of Koraput district.
Mohapatra said this after visiting Kotia cluster of villages, bordering Andhra Pradesh. Though Kotia cluster comprising 28 villages is presently located within Odisha, Andhra Pradesh claimed 21 of them as theirs. The southern state recently released a map of the restructured district. Twenty-one Kotia villages were shown as part of Parvatipuram-Manyam district.
The chief secretary during his visit to the disputed Kotia area reviewed the ongoing development projects at the border panchayat. The state government in February 2021 had announced Rs 150 crore for the development of Kotia cluster of villages.
“Much work has been done to strengthen the infrastructure at Kotia and in coming days apart from construction of roads and bridges, more emphasis will be given to livelihood activities for the Kotia residents,” the chief secretary told reporters.
During his visit, Odisha’s top bureaucrat physically visited the newly commissioned 10-bed hospital, police station and model school among others. The chief secretary also interacted with Kotia residents regarding their issues. He enquired whether the people are getting benefits of several welfare schemes launched by the state government.
“As a part of livelihood activities hill broom cultivation will be carried out in a massive scale,” Mohapatra said, adding that matters relating to leveraging various governmental schemes for integrated socio-economic development of kotia figured in the discussion. He directed district officials to intensify the implementation of the special package for Kotia group of villages.
The chief secretary also visited gram panchayat office and interacted with sarpanch and other elected representatives.
The visit of the chief secretary to the border panchayat assumes significance as the Andhra government has escalated the visits of its officials to Kotia to execute its welfare schemes, the neighbouring state has included it in its newly formed Manyam district for better governance.
Both Odisha and Andhra governments are engaged in a five-decade-long political tug of war over the ownership of 21 out of the 28 villages in the Kotia panchayat and the case is sub-judice at the Supreme Court since 1968.
During his visit to other parts of the tribal-dominated district, the chief secretary attempted to interact with more and more people directly and get their feedback on various schemes, projects and service delivery system. Mohapatra also visited places like Jeypore, Koraput, Narayanpatana and Bandhugaon apart from Kotia.
In the meeting with officials including Koraput district collector Abdaal M Akhtar, he discussed projects relating to construction of a medical college and hospital at Koraput, expansion wing of district headquarters hospital, development of Jeypore airport for operation of commercial flights, construction of roads and bridges, implementation of special package for Kotia group of villages, lift irrigation, supply of piped drinking water, minor irrigation.
After official review, the chief secretary said the commercial flight operations would start soon from Jeypore. Development of required infrastructure for operation of commercial flights was at the finishing stage. The commercial operation was expected to start in about three months, he said, adding that time line was also set to complete 300 bed hospital wing of district headquarters hospital in coming 18 months.
Under Bharatmala Project, around 245 km of road in Koraput and Nabrangpur district would be developed to four lanes. The project would connect Raipur in Chhattisgarh to Vishakhpatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Special feature of the road included complete access control and improved connectivity between several economic hubs, and industrial clusters like HAL and NALCO.
PTI
