Bhubaneswar: With a move to resolve the age-old Kotia dispute with neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the State Government today formed a panel led by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari.
Another 16 members are there in the committee. Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Revenue & DM Department has been appointed as the Member Convenor of the panel while secretaries of SC, ST development, Rural Development, Labour & ESI, Food Supply & Consumer Welfare, Culture, School & Mass Education, Law, Panchayati Raj, and Health & Family Welfare, RDC Berhampur, DIG Koraput, Collector Koraput and SP Koraput are the other members of the panel.
The committee has been formed to define the special agency structure, hierarchical pattern, funding pattern, convergence of various schemes and comparative analysis of the schemes offered by the bordering State for integral development of the Kotia Gram Panchayat and to recommend to the Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.
During a meeting held on April 22 last, CM has given direction to give special attention to Kotia Gram Panchayat and to frame an administrative mechanism in order to address the issues faced by the people through a robust mechanism so that the various departments presently providing different services through their agencies independently to the people could come under one umbrella and all the schemes implemented by them.
Besides, there is also a need to propagate/strengthen Odia language, culture, literature, tradition, festivals in the bordering areas in order to create affiliation under “Odia Ashmita”, officials said.
The dispute over the ownership of 21 of the 28 villages under Kotia panchayat had first reached the Supreme Court in 1968. In 2006, the apex court held that inter-state boundaries did not fall within its jurisdiction and only the Parliament could resolve them, as it imposed a permanent injunction on the disputed area.
The dispute over Kotia group of villages has become a burning and political issue in the state as AP government is trying its best to grab the villages.