Bhubaneswar: Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marandi on Wednesday informed the State Assembly that the border disputes between Odisha and the neighbouring states will be resolved through mutual understanding.
Admitting 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 that efforts were on by the Koraput district 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.
Referring to the border dispute with West Bengal regarding nine revenue villages in Balasore district, the minister said that 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 Balasore district will be stopped.
He also said that the state government has formed a survey team with the additional district collector, sub-collector of Balasore, tehsildar of Jaleswar, Assistant Director Land Record and Survey (ADLRS) and two scientists of the Odisha Remote Sensing Application Centre (ORSAC) as members for demarcation of the villages along the Subarnarekha river with the officials of the West Bengal.
Apart from Koraput and Balasore districts, the West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have the border dispute in Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Nuapada districts, he added.
On the border dispute between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on some villages in Ganjam and Gajapati districts, Marandi said the revenue officials of both the states have conducted a joint inspection and the final report is awaited.
“The House Committee of the State Assembly has directed the state government to examine the inter-state border disputes and take necessary action for an early solution,” he said, adding that there was no major problem relating to the border dispute due to the timely intervention by the state government.
