Hyderabad: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has faced roadblocks in 14 villages bordering Telangana and Maharashtra. Many villagers have refused to accept the enumeration forms, demanding that the question of the state they belonged to be fixed first. Interestingly, both states have staked claim to these villages and the matter is pending in the Supreme Court.About 3,500 voters out of a population of around 6,000 in the 14 villages falling under Parandoli, Mukaddamguda, Antapur and Bolapatar gram panchayats have for decades voted both in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) and Maharashtra in assembly and general elections since 1956, when the states were first reorganised on linguistic basis. They have been electing two sarpanches, two MLAs and two MPs in all the elections since then.The residents of these villages have voter identity cards, ration cards and Aadhaar cards issued by both the states. Moreover, some of these villages get electricity from lines laid by both the states. Each state has its own ration shop in some of these villages. There are also two sarpanches — one representing Telangana and the other Maharashtra — and two schools in Telugu and Marathi each for the four gram panchayats.The Anganwadi centres are also set up separately by both the states in these habitations. The Maharashtra government has laid roads to stretches accessed from the Chandrapur side, while unmotorable paths over rocks and boulders greet people coming from Telangana.These villages are located in an area of 80 square kilometres on the Telangana-Maharashtra border, they fall in the Kerameri tehsil of Adilabad in Telangana and Jivati tehsil of Chandrapur in Maharashtra. The territorial disputes date back to 1956, when the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed.Also read: Under Shadow of 90 Lakh ‘Anomaly’ Voters and Amid Language Concerns, SIR Kicks Off in TelanganaThe villages were part of erstwhile Hyderabad state during Nizam’s rule till 1956. Post the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956, the villages were considered closer to Maharashtra because of cultural ties and to Andhra Pradesh geographically. The impasse over their annexation continued until the formation of Maharashtra in 1960, when the villages were included in Jivati taluka of Maharastra’s Chandrapur district, as per the 1956 linguistic reorganisation.In 1978, the Andhra Pradesh government staked claim to the villages based on a committee report that drew a different border, which sparked off a conflict between the two states.In a bid to resolve the border dispute and clarify jurisdiction, the two state governments resolved to constitute a commission of inquiry headed by K.K. Naidu in 1983. After a prolonged study, the commission decided that the villages would be in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. The Maharashtra government challenged the decision in the Supreme Court.In 1996, the apex court directed the high court to resolve the issue within three months. The matter reportedly still remains pending in the Supreme Court.Simultaneous SIRWith both Telangana and Maharashtra now launching the SIR simultaneously in the current phase of the nationwide programme, election authorities have landed in a peculiar situation where only either state can enrol them under the “one person, one vote” rule.In anticipation of trouble, election officials led by Telangana’s Kerameri tehsildar Pullemla Nagarjuna Goud camped in Parandoli village on June 25 when the SIR took off in Telangana. They attempted to distribute the enumeration forms issued by the state.As Maharashtra begins distributing forms on June 30, its officials are also reaching out to these villagers, according to Nagarjuna.Speaking to The Wire, Nagarjuna said many of the villagers, mostly belonging to Antapur and Bolapatar panchayats, have taken the forms. Only the Marathi-speaking Scheduled Caste (SC) voters of Parandoli and Mukaddamguda panchayats and habitations within them — like Kota, Letiguda, Shankarloddi and Maharajguda — have not accepted them because of their pro-Maharashtra leanings.Nagarjuna said voters from the Lambani community were willing to take forms from Telangana officials as they are categorised as Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the state. They are, however, included on the backward classes list in Maharashtra. “They fear losing their ST status if their names are deleted from voter lists of Telangana,” he added.The Lambadis fall under Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT), which is treated as a backward class in Maharashtra. It is an official classification, mainly in Maharashtra, for state-level reservations and affirmative action. The category is divided into sub-groups that did not fit into the standard SC or ST definitions in the state.Nagarjuna also said the SCs and STs were more or less equal in numbers in the 14 villages. He confirmed that there were dual voter lists for each village.Name of the panchayatNumber of houses PopulationVotersParandoli 358 1,573 873Mukaddamguda 305 1,205761Antapur 363 1,668 815Bolapatar 4061,4791,007Source: EenaduIn the absence of clear demarcation of villages, which resulted in parallel administration by the two state governments, often leading to the overlapping of welfare measures, the villagers were happy to enjoy the best of both worlds, former Maharashtra side’s Parandoli sarpanch Kamble Laxman said while interacting with the media, when he visited these villages recently, seeking to know the reasons for obstruction to SIR.Laxman said the villagers would enroll both in Telangana and Maharashtra as long as the Supreme Court did not settle the issue. He said the SIR would not apply to them until the states’ borders were finalised.He added that the villages were unsurveyed, where the ‘pahani’ of lands issued by the Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra governments enabled them to get crop loans from banks.“Both governments also collected taxes from us. Just when the Maharashtra government was preparing to give them ‘pattas’ (title deeds), Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated in 2014 to create Telangana. Now, the Telangana government is converting our agricultural lands into reserve forest by planting trees. Post-2014, ‘pahanis’ were no longer given by Telangana,” Laxman said.Also read: Telangana SIR: High Court Asks EC to Consider Urdu Forms In Seats With Over 20% SpeakersLaxman demanded that the collectors of Chandrapur and Komaram Bheem Asifabad districts should negotiate and reach a settlement before taking up SIR. “Until then, we will not accept the forms.”Similarly, the current sarpanch elected in the Telangana elections, Pushpalata Rathod (Congress), also sought the intervention of collectors to resolve the issue.Despite several welfare schemes of the Telangana government under the previous Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) dispensation, many Marathi-speaking residents have historically favoured Maharashtra due to their cultural and educational ties. But they also reportedly wanted to avail the ‘Rytu Bandhu’ scheme of Rs 5,000 per acre per season and ‘Rytu Beema’ health insurance of Rs 5 lakh, besides free power for agriculture under the BRS regime.Notably, many village communities in Dharmabad and Lingareddy taluks in Nanded district of Maharashtra had also reportedly expressed their interest to merge with Nizamabad district in Telangana as they claimed they were “attracted by the development and welfare schemes” in the state compared to Maharashtra.In 2022, a former Congress MLA of Maharashtra’s Rajura, Subhash Ramchandrarao Dhote, however, said that the work of giving ownership rights of agricultural land was started by the Maharashtra government in these villages. He added that 70-80% of people in these villages wanted to stay with Maharashtra. “They are citizens of Maharashtra.”Last year an announcement by Maharashtra revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule regarding the transfer of administrative control of the 14 villages from Telangana to Maharashtra led to calls by elected representatives in Telangana to pass a formal resolution against Maharashtra’s annexation efforts.The Telangana government has not formally responded to the claim so far.For Maharashtra, its claim is mainly based on historical revenue records while Telangana continues to seek administrative control on the basis of the recommendations of the K.K. Naidu commission.