14 border villages in Telangana’s Asifabad district stall SIR exercise over jurisdiction

Hyderabad: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has hit a roadblock in 14 villages under four gram panchayats in Kerameri mandal of Kumuram Bheem Asifabad district. Locals, who have been exercising their voting rights in both Telangana and Maharashtra for decades, are refusing to cooperate with the survey until their long-pending border dispute is resolved.The SIR exercise was launched across Telangana on June 25. Officials are finding it difficult to proceed in the ‘disputed’ villages of Parandoli, Mukadamguda, Anthapur and Bolapatar.Chief electoral officer C Sudarshan Reddy said, “Two of the villages agreed to take part in the SIR due to the negotiations done by district collector Haritha. We are also trying to persuade two other villages.”Decades-old border dispute remains unresolvedThe villages were part of the erstwhile Hyderabad State before the linguistic reorganisation of states.

During the reorganisation process, geographical and cultural considerations led to disagreement over whether they should become part of Hyderabad State or Maharashtra.After Maharashtra was formed in 1960, the villages were included in Jiwati taluk of Chandrapur district. The then Andhra Pradesh govt (Hyderabad State and Andhra were amalgamated to form Andhra Pradesh in 1956) objected, maintaining that the villages belonged to its territory under Article 3 of the Constitution. Subsequent findings by committees and court rulings favoured Andhra Pradesh, but Maharashtra challenged them in the Supreme Court, where the dispute remains pending. As a result, residents have continued to have votes in both states for decades.

The unusual arrangement has resulted in parallel governance, with elected representatives and officials from both Telangana and Maharashtra functioning in the villages.Villagers divided over voting rightsWhen survey teams visited the villages for the SIR exercise, many residents declined to share their details. While some demanded that they be recognised only as voters in Telangana, others wanted to retain voting rights in Maharashtra. Several villagers insisted they would cooperate only after the long-standing border dispute was permanently settled.Officials held meetings with residents in the past three days in an effort to persuade them to participate in the SIR exercise.