Koraput: In a bid to save the villagers of Kotia from alienation and from getting drawn to Andhra Pradesh, the state government has decided to establish a police station in the area, a report said Thursday.
The matter came to light after DIG Ashis Singh (South Western Range) and SP Kanwar Vishal Singh visited Kotia panchayat in this district bordering Andhra Pradesh and identified a three acre plot for the establishment of a police station and a police camp Wednesday.
The construction of the police station and camp will begin in two months. The establishment of a BSF camp is also in the offing.
The senior police officers also held discussions with the sarpanch, ward members and villagers over the law and order situation and Maoist problems in the panchayat.
Three days back, a team from the district administration had visited the area and held discussions with the villagers for establishing a high school and a police station.
During the British era, a police outpost used to function from a tin roofed house in the panchayat but was closed down. The signs of the police outpost were wiped out after someone stole the tin sheets, they said.
Odisha and Andhra Pradesh are at loggerheads over 21 villages in Kotia panchayat in the Pottangi block of Koraput district since five decades.
The issue is now in the Supreme Court. As a result, the residents in the panchayat have remained neglected on all fronts by the administration and are deprived of all government benefits.
Eyeing the villages, the Andhra Pradesh government started reaching out to them a few years ago. It has started taking up development projects in the panchayat by constructing roads, ensuring power supply, establishing Anganwadis, distributing PDS cards and old age pensions to the villagers.
Unnerved by the development, the district administration of Koraput has also taken up development projects like the establishment of a school, construction of roads and provision of drinking water facilities in the panchayat. It has also introduced a government bus service and set up a market for the villagers.
Three months back Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also visited the area and announced that the Centre will spend around Rs 100 crore for the development of Kotia villages.