Bhubaneswar: A panchayat election notice from a neighbouring state has put a 60-year-old border dispute back on Odisha's front pages. Andhra Pradesh has notified polls in three villages of Kotia gram panchayat in Koraput district — Phagunasineri, Ganjeipadar and Phatusineri — and Odisha's ruling and opposition parties are trading blame over who lost the ground.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said Odisha and Andhra Pradesh both claim rights over 21 of the 28 villages in Kotia, a cluster fought over since the 1960s. "We have been trying our best to resolve the Kotia issue. I visited Kotia four times in the past two years," he told reporters, adding that the dispute "escalated due to the negligence of the previous BJD government headed by Naveen Patnaik."
Patnaik, the BJD president and Leader of the Opposition, had written to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, asking why the state had stayed silent and whether that silence was linked to the BJP's dependence on the Telugu Desam Party, which governs Andhra Pradesh and is an NDA ally at the Centre. Pujari called the letter an "eyewash" and an attempt to "cover up past mistakes."
On Tuesday the minister met the state's advocate general, the revenue divisional commissioner of the southern division and the Koraput collector. "I have asked the RDC and collector to keep a close watch on the Kotia area," he said.
BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty alleged Odisha had lost ground since the BJP took power in June 2024, and Odisha Congress president Bhakta Charan Das blamed both parties for the deadlock. The dispute sits before the Supreme Court, where Odisha's 2022 suit is still pending.
Kotia's dispute is old. In 1968 the Supreme Court directed both states to maintain the existing position, and in 2006 it ruled that such inter-state boundary disputes were best resolved by Parliament under Article 131 of the Constitution. Odisha filed a fresh suit in January 2022, still under consideration. BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said the BJP raised the slogan 'Go back, Andhra' while in opposition and formed a 16-member Kotia Committee after coming to power, yet there has been no result — an allegation the ruling party has not directly answered.