JEYPORE: Days after a special team from Odisha surveyed the disputed border with Andhra Pradesh (AP) near Sunabeda village here, revenue officials from the district are set to meet their counterparts from Visakhapatnam for a joint demarcation which will start on Wednesday. Official sources said revenue officials of Koraput and Visakhapatnam will do a joint survey of the border and match it with respective State maps on the spot. Subsequently, boundary pillars will be put up in presence of officials from both the sides.
Forest department and Panchayati Raj staff from Koraput and Paderu sub division of Visakhapatnam are also likely to join the verification exercise.“We are ready to show the original demarcation as surveyed in Sunabeda. AP officials can verify it during the joint survey and reach a conclusion on the border status,” said Pottangi Tehsildar Haripada Mandal.
Ten days back, a special settlement team from Berhampur along with local revenue staff of Koraput had conducted a survey to ascertain the Odisha-AP border. The team found that the original boundary marks were intact as per the 1955 settlement survey by Madras Presidency and not “manipulated” as claimed by AP villagers.
However, some encroachment of government land for cultivation was detected from both sides and Koraput Collector was informed to do the needful.The border row has been raging since a month after some AP villagers repositioned a boundary signboard 500 metres into the Odisha side. Meanwhile, a similar territorial dispute was witnessed in Gajapati district where villagers claimed encroachment by bordering AP villagers and prompted a joint survey on the day.
Odisha-AP boundary demarcation in Gajapati
Berhampur: As scheduled, a joint border survey of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh was started near S.Kaviti village in Gajapati district on Monday. Revenue officials of Pathapatnam Mandal in Srikakulam district and Paralakhemundi participated. The survey would continue for a couple of days to demarcate the land, officials said. Villagers of Cherugudi Mouza in Gajapati district have been alleging that farmers of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh have illegally occupied their lands in bordering areas.