Bhubaneswar: On a day when Narendra Modi was in town, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) urged the Prime Minister to intervene in the long-standing dispute between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh over a cluster of villages in Kotia, in Koraput district.
The dispute was escalated recently after Andhra Pradesh issued a notification to conduct panchayat elections in the area on November 3.
On Sunday, hours before Modi arrived in Bhubaneswar to inaugurate Reserve Bank of India’s data centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute, senior BJD leaders Pradeep Kumar Majhi and Bhrugu Baxipatra made the demand that PM Modi resolve the dispute.
“The BJD would like to suggest that Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi request the Prime Minister to intervene in the Kotia issue and resolve it,” Majhi said at a press conference.
The BJD leaders questioned the “double-engine” state government’s response to the territorial dispute, and urged Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi to personally take up the matter with the Prime Minister.
“The BJD will hold the chief minister accountable if Andhra Pradesh conducts panchayat elections in the Kotia villages on November 3. The elections will be considered Majhi’s failure to protect the state’s territory,” Baxipatra said.
The issue of Kotia villages, along the Andhra Pradesh border, has kept coming up periodically over administrative claims and Andhra Pradesh’s efforts to carry out its welfare and electoral activities in the area.
The Odisha government has moved the Supreme Court over Andhra’s panchayat polls notification in Kotia villages.