Pottangi: People of two villages – Sunabeda under Pottangi block of Koraput district in Odisha, and Tekapar in Vishakhapatnam district of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh – have locked horns over a patch of forest land in the fringe area, as per a report.
According to the report, a woodland sprawling around Musapar hill near Sunabeda village belongs to Odisha as per revenue records.Scores of people of Sunabeda have been cultivating the forest land over generations.
However, some people of Tekapar grabbed the land and started farming activities there, triggering protests from the people of Sunabeda.
Thereafter, Bhoi Ramchandra and Tamal Potana, residents of Andhra Pradesh, had attacked Bhanja Gemel, a resident of Sunabeda, Tuesday.
Following the incident, people of two other villages like Jamuguda and Nuaguda also opposed the land grab act by Andhra people.
The people of the three villages took up the issue with zilla parishad members Laichan Khara and Daudu Dora and Sambhai sarpanch Kishore Chandra Khara before Bhanja filed a complaint at Pottangi police station in this regard.
They also submitted a memorandum to Pottangi BDO Soumyasarthak Mishra. Notably, the same patch of forest land had triggered controversy in October 2020.The district administration had to intervene in the matter.
Then Collector Madhusudan Mishra along with revenue officials of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh had demarcated the land as per the Madras Presidency map. The dispute was settled then.
PNN