Koraput: The district administration on Wednesday submitted a detailed report to the state government on the alleged intrusion of officials from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh into the disputed Kotiya panchayat under Pottangi block.

The officials from Andhra, according to the report, intrude into the area for that government's flagship Janmabhoomi programme.

Both the Odisha and Andhra governments have been entangled in a legal battle for the past 50 years over the ownership of 21 out of the 28 villages under the panchayat. "We had conducted a probe into the intrusion of Andhra officials to Kotiya on Tuesd-ay and sent the report to the government for necessary action. We are closely monitoring the situation," said district collector Anupam Saha.

On Tuesday afternoon, Vizianagaram collector, along with a team of officials, visited the Tolo Ganjaipadar village in Kotiya panchayat and distributed blankets and old-age pension to several beneficiaries under the Janmabhoomi programme. The officials also put up posters highlighting the Andhra government's poverty alleviation programmes.

Officials and police from Andhra have ventured inside Kotiya on several occasions in the past, but this is the first time that a district collector from the neighbouring state visited the place, taking the Koraput administration by surprise.

The Koraput administration, after learning of the intrusion, sent a team to the disputed village to take stock of the situation. "We removed the posters put up by the Andhra officials," said Koraput sub-collector Krutibas Rout, who had rushed to Kotiya on Tuesday evening. Rout said the Odisha government had constructed 22 schools and 23 anganwadi centres at Kotiya. There is also a residential high school and a primary health centre.

"The Odisha government has set up all the necessary infrastructure at Kotiya and the development activities will be expedited in the coming days," Saha said.

Pottangi MLA Prafulla Pangi said: "All social security schemes of the Odisha government are functional at Kotiya and the villagers have been provided houses under various rural housing schemes by the government. Kotiya is an integral part of Odisha."

While Kotia is part of the Pottangi Assembly seat and the Koraput Lok Sabha constituency, it has been included in Salur Assembly seat and Srikakulam Lok Sabha seat in Andhra.

Since 1968, the Odisha and Andhra governments have been entangled in a legal batter over the ownership of the 21 villages of 4,448 people (according to the 2011 census).

"The Supreme Court, in its March 2006 decision, had urged both states to maintain status quo. The Andhra officials have illegally entered inside Odisha's boundary," said Sadananda Mishra, advocate who had represented the state in the case.