Andhra And Odisha Border Dispute Reached SC Again

Andhra and Odisha border dispute reached Supreme Court again, hearing to be held today.

The Odisha government has filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against Andhra Pradesh, alleging violation of court order and violation of the border.

Odisha has said that Andhra Pradesh has conducted panchayat elections in three villages of the Kotia village group in its Koraput district, a violation of the Supreme Court’s order to maintain the status quo.

Odisha has demanded the initiation of contempt action against Andhra Pradesh for this.

On Thursday, senior counsel Vikas Singh and Shibu Shankar Mishra, on behalf of Odisha, referred to the petition before the Chief Justice’s bench and requested for an early hearing. Accepting the request, the court directed the matter to be put on hearing on Friday.

The Odisha government has demanded in its petition that panchayat elections be banned in three villages falling in the Kotia Panchayat of Koraput district.

Also, contempt proceedings should be initiated against the Andhra Pradesh government, as it has deliberately violated the Supreme Court’s December 2, 1968, and March 30, 2006 orders.

In those orders, the Supreme Court had asked the two states to maintain the status quo in the border dispute case of Kotia Village Group.

The Odisha government has alleged that the sarpanch and other members have been elected unopposed in two of the three-gram panchayats.

Elections are yet to be held in the third panchayat. To keep the elections completely confidential, the Gram Panchayat Enrollment Centers of those three villages were set up in the Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh, 20 km from the village.

Odisha says that there are a total of 21 villages in the Kotia village group. Andhra Pradesh pulled out several notifications of local body elections on March 5, 2020.

In this context, notification of holding panchayat elections in Salur Mandal was also issued on the due date and three villages of Odisha were deliberately included in this panchayat election.

Andhra Pradesh cleverly changed the name of the three villages while doing so. The village Ganjaipadar was renamed Ganjayabadara, Fattusenari as Pattuchenuru, and Fagusenari as Fagulusenari.

In fact, these three villages fall in the Kotia village group of Koraput district of Odisha and it conducts panchayat elections from time to time.

Not only this, but the people of these three villages also take advantage of the social schemes run by the Odisha government.

Odisha has said that holding elections in these villages is a violation of the Supreme Court’s order to maintain the status quo.