Berhampur:Assistant director of census on Saturday visited Manikpatna, a border village in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in Gajapati district’s Rayagada block, to review the ongoing first phase census operation in the border villages.Sujit Kumar Pradhan, also the nodal officer for Gajapati district, discussed with villagers, enumerators and supervisors about the census. His visit to review the census operation assumes significance as a group of enumerators from Andhra Pradesh visited the bordering village under Gangabada panchayat and marked the house numbers, three days ago, claiming that the village belonged to Andhra Pradesh and allegedly removed the house numbers marked by the enumerators.The enumerators from Gajapati district again visited the village and marked the numbers in each household by removing the number marked by the enumerators in Andhra Pradesh after sub-collector, Paralakhemundi Anup Panda, and others visited the village to take stock of the situation.“Our enumerators have again visited the bordering village and marked the house numbers,” said Falguni Majhi, additional district magistrate (ADM), Gajapati. Police patrolling was intensified in the village after the incident, he said. The enumerators have already completed the house number marking in the border village. Enumerators from neighboring state did not come again to the village,” said Sukant Pradhan, tehsildar, Rayagada. There are around 70 households in the village. House enumeration was held in the first phase of the census.He said while the field work in the census operation in the village was completed, the data would be uploaded in the portal. The census operation was also going on smoothly in other areas, especially the border villages. Haribandhu Karjee, sarpanch of Gangabad panchayat, has urged the government for permanent solution of the bordering disputes in the district, especially in his panchayat.
