Odisha, Andhra Chief Ministers meeting today, Kotia border dispute tops the agenda. Bhubaneswar News – Times of India

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha-Andhra Pradesh dispute over a group of 21 villages under Kotiya panchayat, besides issues of common interest, will be discussed during the meeting of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his AP counterpart. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy official sources said here on Tuesday.
A delegation of senior bureaucrats led by the Chief Secretary of Odisha Suresh Mohapatra and their Andhra Pradesh counterparts Sameer Sharma Discussions will take place in the first part of the day. Both the Chief Ministers will meet in the evening at Lok Seva Bhawan and take forward the issues.
A preparatory meeting of state officials was held here on Monday on the issues to be raised. Similarly, Reddy along with his officers discussed the agenda with Naveen at his camp office in Guntur.
“It will be a rare occasion when the CMs of both the neighboring states will sit together over a cup of tea to discuss issues of mutual interest and resolve their differences instead of going to the Center or the Supreme Court. It will set an example,” said a senior government official here.
While issues such as the construction of the Neradi barrage on AP’s Vamsadhara river, which requires acquisition of over 100 acres of land from Odisha, and the Janjavati project, which will submerge over 1,000 acres of Odisha land, will also be part of it. During the discussion, Odisha is eyeing an amicable solution to the contentious issue of Kotia.
A government official said the Supreme Court has on August 31 said that the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border dispute due to the claims of the two states on Kotia should be resolved through mutual discussion. ,
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan hoped that the mutual discussion between the two chief ministers would help resolve differences on border, water and language issues.
“Many problems are solved in a democracy by mutual consultation. I sincerely hope that discussions at the highest level will help resolve the contentious issues,” reads part of a tweet by Dharmendra.
Hearing a contempt petition filed by Odisha, the SC has made an “oral observation” that the border dispute should be resolved politically through dialogue between the two states. Odisha’s contention is that Andhra violated the Scheduled Caste orders of December 2, 1968 and March 30, 2006, by holding panchayat elections at Talaganjipdar, Phatuseneri And Phagunaseneri Village against the status quo order of Scheduled Castes
These are among the 21 villages claimed by both the states; Odisha maintains that they are part of Potangi block of Koraput district, while Andhra claims that they are part of Salur mandal of Vizianagaram district.
The Supreme Court, on March 30, 2006, disposed of a suit filed by Odisha in 1968, which held that Parliament alone is empowered to determine the territorial limits of the states and had ordered status quo by then.

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