Koraput: Andhra Pradesh is boldly executing several projects in the controversial Kotia cluster in Koraput district.
The latest is the construction of a check dam near the Tadivalasa-Kumbhimada Road in Kotia panchayat, said the convener of the Kotia Development Committee and Koraput’s former Collector Gadadhar Parida at a press conference held at the Tribal Museum here Wednesday.
The Tadivalasa-Kumbhimada Road was constructed during the British era and has always been in Koraput district. Even though the road is in Koraput district, the AP government is getting a check dam built to remove the area from the map of Koraput, Parida said.
He said the Tadivalasa-Kumbhimada Road is very much inside the Koraput district. But a few days ago, the AP government started construction of a check dam costing Rs 4 lakh near this road to merge the area with its territory.
Parida and some senior citizens recently returned from the spot after conducting an on-the-spot check. They said the dam is being constructed in such a way that it will neither irrigate farmlands nor will be of any use to local residents.
“The intention behind constructing the dam is clear. Once the dam is built the AP government will show the dam as its own and automatically gain rights over the land,” he added.
The Kotia cluster comprises 21 villages and for five decades these villages have been a bone of contention between Odisha and Andhra.
From last year, the AP government has been organising health camps, distributing ration cards and pensions, executing road projects and has also conducted awareness campaigns under its ‘Janmabhumi’ scheme in these villages.
The AP government dared to do this only because both the state government and the district administration have not been serious in preventing AP from executing projects inside Odisha, Parida said.
Listing out the failures of the state government and the district administration, Parida put forth some facts.
He said that even though the state government had declared a package worth Rs 150 crore for Kotia panchayat, there is no sign of any development projects there.
The district’s people’s festival ‘Parab 2018’ was started from Kotia and on the occasion the district administration had laid foundation stones for some projects. Shockingly the plaques of those projects can now be seen scattered on the premises of the Kotia panchayat office, he said.
Similarly, an 18 km-long road project connecting Kotia and Tadivalasa costing Rs 13 crore was undertaken by the district administration. But now work on this project has been stopped for reasons best known to the administration, Parida added.
It’s time the state government and the district administration became serious regarding their role in Kotia cluster, or else they will soon have to cry over spilt milk as AP would have swallowed it, Parida warned.
PNN