Koraput: The state government and the Andhra government are claiming a plot of three acres under Pottangi block in the district as their own.

The state home department had identified this plot to establish a police station at Kotia. The district administration had also identified three more acres to construct a 10 bed hospital and a high school in the area. Deputy inspector general of police, south-western range, Ashish Singh and Koraput superintendent of police Kanwar Vishal Singh along with revenue officials visited the location in Kotia on Wednesday for an on-site inspection.

"The state government has already sanctioned a police station for Kotia but due to lack of suitable land we were unable to construct the building. We examined the plot before zeroing on the construction," the DIG said.

"All legal formalities for acquiring the land has been finalised and construction of police station will begin shortly," he said. At present, Kotia panchayat comes under Pottangi police station, situated at a distance of about 36km from it.

"As the distance between Kotia and Pottangi is very long people faced a lot of problems to come to the police station and besides also it was also time consuming for police officials to handle cases in Kotia. The new police station at Kotia will be helpful in policing the area," the SP said.

Both the Odisha and Andhra governments have been engaged in a five-decade long political tug of war over the ownership of 21 out of the 28 villages in the Kotia panchayat and the case is sub-judice at the Supreme Court since 1968.

Peeved over frequent intrusion of Andhra officials and implementation various welfare programmes of Andhra government at Kotia, the Odisha government had finalised a special package worth Rs 150 crore in April for the development of the region.