BALASORE: Amid territorial conflict with the West Bengal (WB) government, many bordering villages of Bhograi block in Balasore district have been deprived of benefits under government schemes while their children do not get admission into state schools for secondary classes in absence of land and residential documents.
A case in point is Sankhamedi village under Analia panchayat. Home to nearly 160 families, the village continues to face many challenges as residents are unable to avail benefits of Odisha government’s schemes owing to disputed land and non-issuance of relevant documents.
According to official data, Sankhamedi has a population of 556 and 283 voters. Villagers cast their votes in both Odisha and West Bengal as their names are officially registered under both states. As per reports, the Odisha government collected land revenue from the area till 1992 but stopped after that. The West Bengal government in the meantime had included the village under its territory in 1990 through a settlement process. This posed challenges for the local residents.
For instance, education of children going to Odia medium school in the village has been affected. They are unable to apply to other Odia medium schools in the State after completing Class V as parents are unable to submit relevant documents like resident, income and caste certificates, necessary for school admission. As a result parents enrol their children in educational facilities of WB.
Sankhamedi Primary School teacher, Samar Das, said students who are passing class-V exams are enrolled in different schools in Ramnagar block of West Bengal. “We were getting all facilities till land revenue collection was stopped by the Odisha Government. Now we are deprived of facilities like loan, pension, houses under various schemes due to land records dispute,” Sapan Jena, a villager said.
Sources say, as many as 81 bordering villages in Bhograi and Jaleswar blocks in the district are facing similar issues due to disputes between two states. Balasore Collector K Sudarshan Chakraborty said he has directed Bhograi tehsildar to inquire into the matter and take needful steps for the village.