Admin wakes up to pending projects in Kotia

KORAPUT: Days after the MLA of Salur in Andhra Pradesh (AP) Rajanna Dora distributed essential commodities to lockdown-hit residents of Kotia, the Koraput administration woke up from its slumber on Monday and reviewed all the pending State Government projects being undertaken in disputed panchayat.
Collector Madhusudan Mishra said a team of officers led by the Sub-Collector will visit Kotia on Tuesday to examine status of the projects. A report on Odisha’s apathy towards villages under the panchayat was published in The New Indian Express on Sunday.

The Odisha Government had sanctioned `150 crore in 2018 for construction of roads, hospital, police station and school buildings at the Kotia gram panchayat.After the review meeting, Mishra told mediapersons that a 10-bed health sub-centre in Kotia will be handed over to the administration on June 20 and SOUTHCO has been asked to provide power supply to the facility before that. He added that ground floor work of the police station has been completed while construction of walls of the second floor is underway. There are also plans to construct a third floor in the due course of time, he said.

Mishra directed the Pottangi BDO to construct market yards and sheds for the convenience of farmers and vendors at the Kotia weekly haat and the RTO to resume plying of OSRTC buses to Kotia village which was discontinued during the lockdown.

On allegations that Odisha Government did not provide relief to residents during the lockdown, the Collector informed that ration for three months, pension money and stipend for school students were provided to people in advance just before the lockdown.

Mishra added that road construction works will also speed up in the area.Social activist Ajit Patra said to bring a sense of belonging among the locals towards the land, the district administration should organised mass singing of ‘Bande Utkal Janani’ in Kotia and celebrate Utkal Divas on April 1 every year.