People in Odisha's two panchayats want to be part of Chhattisgarh. Here's why

"The government has not taken any steps to uplift our status," Sunabeda GP sarpanch Tilsingh Jhakkar wrote to the district collector of Gariabandh.

Upset over the Odisha government’s indifference towards them, over 25,000 people in two gram panchayats of Odisha's Nuapara district on Sunday wrote to the district collector of neighbouring Gariabandh district in Chhatisgarh to take steps for including them in his district after passing a resolution to that effect.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. (HT archive)

“For years we have been living without basic facilities like electricity and water as our homes are situated in inaccessible hilly terrains. The Odisha government has also not taken any steps to uplift our status. From birth to death, we depend on Chhatisgarh and identify with it. So it's better that the panchayats of Sunabeda and Soseng are included in Gariabandh district," Sunabeda GP sarpanch Tilsingh Jhakkar wrote to the district collector of Gariabandh.

Jhakkar, who belongs to the Chuktia Bhunjia tribe in Sunabeda plateau of Nuapada district, alleged that since independence, the people of 23 villages in those two panchayats have never been considered as part of Odisha. There are no doctor and other staff at Sunabeda primary health centre. There is no ambulance service. Permanent land pattas are yet to be distributed to villagers while minor irrigation facilities have not been provided to different villages," he said.

Of the 25,000 villagers who passed the resolution seeking to merge their villages with Gariabandh, 300 Paharia families are in Sunabeda plateau. Though they were counted as tribals in Odisha before independence, they were excluded from the ST list of Odisha after Independence. But Paharias in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have been included in the ST list.

"All the Paharias belonging to different villages of Sunabeda and Soseng panchayats are now planning to migrate to the bordering villages of Chhattisgarh to avail tribal status because in Odisha, they are deprived of their rights," said Biju Jhakkar of Sunabeda. "In these two panchayats, people are yet to get power and road connectivity as it is situated inside the Sunabeda wildlife division. But in Chhattisgarh, there are pucca roads inside sanctuaries. Many people in Sunabeda have to walk 23 kilometres to catch a bus at Barkote on the foothill of Sunabeda," said Jhakkar.

The resolution of the villagers in the two panchayats has come at a time when three villages in Odisha's Koraput district bordering Andhra Pradesh have been claimed by the latter as part of its own. The Supreme Court is now hearing a contempt of court petition of the Odisha government against the Andhra Pradesh government over the latter holding panchayat polls in one of the villages of Kotia gram panchayat in Koraput district last month.

On February 13, over 80 per cent of the 1,025 voters of Patusinri village under Kotia gram panchayat in Koraput district had voted for electing the sarpanch of Pattuchennuru gram panchayat of Andhra Pradesh.