Out of sight is out of mind. The Odisha government has certainly proved this adage beyond doubt. Had it not been for the Vizianagaram collector who, along with his team, doled out freebies to inhabitants of the Kotia gram panchayat on January 9, Odisha would still be in deep slumber. Only after Andhra Pradesh decided to bring its Janmabhoomi Yojana into what remains a disputed cluster of villages for the last 50 years that Odisha realised that the boundary of its Koraput district has been “breached”.
The 21 villages under Kotia GP continue to be disputed territory since 1968 when Odisha filed a suit before the Supreme Court seeking its right and possession on the grounds that the area was under the erstwhile Jeypore Estate.
With the settlement still pending and a permanent injunction from the apex court in place on the area, Odisha and AP have been staking claim over this cluster. The two states are known to shower generosity when elections draw closer because the residents are on the electoral rolls of both states. Andhra even confers ST status to certain non-tribal communities which are recognised as OBC in Odisha.
While the neighbour has steadily been asserting its presence in the territory by providing free education and other welfare measures, Odisha can’t even claim the same. Most villages remain cut off from the mainstream because there is no access at all.
After receiving the AP jolt and the bad press that came along, Odisha has started building roads and now talks of introducing bus connectivity. The truth is, villages like Kotia rarely matter in the political scheme of things because they are too far from the seat of power and have none to lend a voice for them.
Before claiming its title and rights, Odisha must realise that geographical rights go hand in hand with development, but what does the Naveen Patnaik government have to show in the last mile of the state? Just abject backwardness even after 17 years of its rule. Blaming AP is, surely, not the solution.