Gajapati district villagers refuse to be counted as part of Orissa state

GAJAPATI - Some villagers residing in Orissa’s Gajapati District have refuse to get themselves enumerated for the census as part of the state.

39 families consisting of more than 150 members have been living in the Derasahi village of Kashipur subdivision of Gajapati district since 1980, after the floods from Bansadhara River.

The families, originally from V.R Narayanpur village of Andhra Pradesh, had purchased land in the Gajapati district from the people of Orissa.

The villagers, although living on Orissa, have registered that their land’s in Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, they receive all the facilities from the Andhra Pradesh government.ill now Orissa government was unaware of the situation and therefore the village was deprived of the facilities by the state government.

“The land is totally in Orissa. Till then they should enumerate in Orissa. Instead the Andhra officials are forcibly entered to enumerate in the Orissa boundary,” said S.K Pattnaik, Census Officer, Kashipur Block, Gajapati.

“We get everything from ration, electricity to water from the Andhra Government. Orissa government doesn’t provide us anything so we don’t want to be in Orissa,” said R. Venkat Rao, a villager, Derasahi.

Instead of disclosing their identities to the Orissa officials, they are disclosing it to the Andhra Pradesh census officials.

Meanwhile the census officer of the area has informed the district collector as well as the Orissa state census officer.

The district administration is trying to solve the issue with their counterpart in Andhra Pradesh. (ANI)