JEYPORE/KORAPUT: The death of a 20-year-old from the bordering Kotia panchayat has once again brought to the fore the escalating face-off between the administration of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. In the wee hours of Thursday, Biswanath Gemel, a resident of Ganjeipadar in Kotia, died in a road mishap near Gelaguda on the Kunduli-Kotia road. His body was then taken to Pottangi Community Health Centre (CHC) for postmortem.
As the spot where the mishap took place is within the jurisdiction of Kunduli Primary Health Centre, the autopsy was conducted by a doctor from Kunduli at Pottangi, said medical officer (MO) of Pottangi CHC Dr Bhagabat Murmu.
After the postmortem, villagers asked for an ambulance to take the body back home but the MO denied the same saying the CHC did not have an ambulance driver and asked them to wait for another vehicle from Kunduli or Koraput. However, as the ambulance could not reach on time, villagers shouted slogans against the Odisha administration and decided to take the body on a bike in the evening.
Meanwhile, Bishu Gamel, an ex-sarpanch of Talaganajeipadar, run under the AP administration, took Gemel’s body on a bike as a mark of protest by shouting slogans against Odisha’s failure to give ambulance service to villages. Besides, some villagers allegedly manhandled the MO for non-availability of the vehicle which irked the locals.
Things flared up on the issue on Friday when the entire medical staff of Pottangi CHC staged a protest over the attack on the MO and locked up the CHC. They joined work after assurance of protection from Koraput CDMO Dr Arun Padhi. Meanwhile, police arrested two persons - Rajat Kumar Khilo and Binod Kumar Pangi of Kotia - for their role in the attack on the doctor, Pottangi IIC CH Naik informed.
However, protesting the arrest, Kotia villagers rushed to Pottangi police station and demanded the release of the two and even threatened to join the AP side if their demands were not met. They staged protests till late in the evening.
Dr Padhi informed that there were no drivers at Pottangi to take the dead body on Thursday and some vested interests carried the body on a bike to defame the administration. Koraput collector Abdaal M. Akhtar and SP Abhinav Sonkar discussed the situation with Koraput CDMO and assured the safety of medical staff in Pottangi.
Condemning the lack of coordination in the administration, Jeypore MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati demanded that the government must appoint a nodal officer at Kotia to liaise with officials during such crises.
“If there is no coordination among police, administrative officials and locals, then the possibility of Kotia residents taking it out against Odisha during the upcoming elections cannot be ruled out,” Bahinipati said.