Opposition BJP and Congress on Wednesday came down heavily on the BJD Government accusing it of inept handling of the border disputes with neighbouring States even as Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marndi said all such differences would be resolved through mutual understanding.
The issue was raised in the Assembly though a discussion on the admissibility of an adjournment motion on inter-State boundary disputes. “There are 21 villages of Koraput district and 16 villages of Gajapati district having dispute with Andhra Pradesh. As there is no development in the border areas, people are now inclined towards the neighbouring State,” BJP Chief Whip Mohan Majhi said while initiating the debate.
Stating that the border disputes continue since decades, Majhi demanded immediate intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in order to save Odisha’s boundary.BJP deputy leader in Asse4mbly Bishnu Sethi said the neighbouring States are indulged in illegal activities as the state government is not serious about the border disputes. “The Minister is not interested to intervene into the matter which indicates that the government is least bothered for the people living on the fringe area,” he said. Sethi said the people in the border area are in dilemma as there is “inaction” from the state government side while they get lucrative offers from the neighbouring State Governments.
The infiltrators are taking advantage of the situation and entering into Baleswar and Bhadrak districts, he pointed out demanding constitution of an all-party committee to resolve the issue.
The BJP members also said that the State Government should accept the recent proposal of Union Minister Dhjarmendra Pradhan to resolve the border disputes.
Congress Legislature Party Leader Narasingha Mishra accused the State Government of remaining in “deep sleep and in coma” and therefore unable to make any effort to resolve the issue. He, however, walked out of the House for not getting sufficient time to elaborately speak on the issue.
Minister Marndi admitted that there was a border dispute between some districts of Andhra Pradesh on 21 cluster villages of Kotia panchayat and Sambai village under Pottangi tehsil in Koraput district. He said efforts are on by the Koraput district administration and and the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (southern division) to resolve the issue. “The Collector of Visakhapatnam district said that the dispute will be resolved on the basis of the revenue map of both the states,” he added.
In regard to the border dispute with West Bengal, he said a high-level meeting between the senior revenue officials of the two states was held in Bhubaneswar on July 24 last year where it was decided that the demarcation of the boundaries will be made in accordance with the guidelines of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Besides, illegal sand quarry in the bordering villages in Baleswar district will be stopped.
The Minister said the State Government has formed a survey team with the Additional District Collector, Sub-Collector of Baleswar, tehsildar of Jaleswar, Assistant Director Land Record and Survey and two scientists of the Odisha Remote Sensing Application Centre as members for demarcation of the villages along the Subarnarekha river with the officials of the West Bengal.