On Odisha statehood day, disputed border region becomes theatre of BJD-BJP tussle

The Modi government’s most prominent Odisha face, Pradhan visited Phatu Senari village in Kotia along with six BJP MLAs and other BJP leaders, and raised slogans of “Go Back Andhra” while addressing a gathering.

On Friday, BJP MLAs had raised the Kotia issue in the Assembly, and targeted the Naveen Patnaik government claiming officials and senior ministers of Andhra Pradesh were “trespassing” in the area.

In his speech in Kotia, Pradhan said his message was for “Odia unity to make Odisha great”. “There might be differences of opinion in a democracy. But, like every Odia goes to pull the chariot of Lord Jagannath on Rath Yatra, April 1 (Utkala Dibasa) is an occasion for Odias to be united,” said the Union Education Minister.

Pradhan has earlier written to Patnaik on multiple occasions to convene an all-party meeting for resolution of the border dispute over Kotia.

Local BJD MLA Pitam Padhi (Pottangi seat) accused the Union minister of playing politics with Utkala Dibasa, with an eye on the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Padhi asked why despite being a minister at the Centre, “he has never placed the Kotia issue before Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its resolution”. “Neither have any of the BJP MPs raised the issue in Parliament,” Padhi told The Indian Express.

The BJD MLA also charged that Pradhan was “conspiring” to take away the Central University of Odisha at Koraput to other regions in the pretext of opening a satellite centre.

Kotia is a cluster of 28 villages, with Odisha and Andhra both claiming territorial jurisdiction over 21 of them. The matter first made it to the Supreme Court in 1968 after the Odisha government approached it. On December 2, 1968, the Court asked the two states to maintain the status quo.

On March 30, 2006, the apex court dismissed the Odisha government’s petition on technical ground, and again directed status quo till a final resolution.

In November 2021, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik held a meeting with his Andhra counterpart Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to try solve the issue. Both the CMs agreed to set up a joint institutional mechanism to resolve various bilateral issues.

In January 22, the Naveen Patnaik government again approached the Supreme Court, arguing that the disputed region was included under the Pottangi taluk of Koraput district in the 2011 Census and Odisha had been collecting land revenues from these villages for decades.

The top court recently issued notice to both the states.

With the matter long sub-judice, the neighbouring states have both been carrying out activities like infrastructure development, rollout of welfare schemes and even holding panchayat polls in the region.

Currently, a development package of Rs 150 crore is being undertaken by the Odisha government in the Kotia region.