A check gate was placed at Taupadar enroute Deomali and Kotia from Kunduli in Koraput district in the wake of recent uninformed visit by officers of Andhra Pradesh to Kotia where they distributed blankets and organised a Janma Boomi programme raising eyebrows in Odisha.

To prevent re-occurrence of such visits without the knowledge of district administration, the check gate was installed today . The check gate was inaugurated in presence of Prafulla Pangi, MLA, Pottangi along with Block Chairman and other officials from the block. A few days ago there was a furore in administrative circles here when the district collector of Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh visited Kotia with a team of officials to hold Janma bhoomi Programme of Andhra Pradesh government .

It might be recalled that the district administration was in dark till the district collector of Vizianagaram had left the place and Sub-collector of Koraput could reach only in the afternoon for the delayed receipt of information . The incident had brought the disputed 21 villages of Kotia panchayat into focus once again .

Visits by all the political parties were made one after the other, thus putting additional pressure on the district administration to deliver. Electrification in a couple of villages were taken up on a war footing and officials started visiting to the remote villages to see if they too could win over the hearts of people who were getting lured by Andhra Pradesh government for the attractive offers like free electricity , education, better health facilities etc.

The check gate would help in screening the people who are visiting Kotia in addition to generating revenue for maintenance of Deomali as site of tourist attraction, Mr.Pangi said. Anupam Saha, who was the district collector of Koraput till last Tuesday had begun consultations with different sections of the society on finding better solution to the long standing challenge in the 21 villages and other boarder areas between Odisha and AP, was transferred to Gajapati district on Tuesday. K Sudarshan Chakravarthy former district collector of Malkangiri district had joined Koraput as the new collector today.