Maharashtra claims certain Maratha-speaking areas in Karnataka and Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai has lately raised the demand for including Kannada-speaking Maharashtra regions in his state.
The border dispute between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh had two new developments on Monday — Maharashtra tasked two ministers to hold talks with activists and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he would be visiting Delhi to consult top laywers over the dispute.
Maharashtra has claimed Karnataka's Belgam district and 80 other Marathi-speaking villages inside Karnataka. Karnataka also claims Kannada-speaking areas in Solapur district of Maharashtra.
Recently on Saturday, residents of Maharashtra's Tikondi village in Jat taluka on the border with Karnataka held a rally to express disappointment with Maharashtra authorities for not providing them water and not developing health and education facilities. They said the Karnataka border was located just 3 kilometres away, while children go to colleges in Bijapur in the neighbouring state, which is 25 kilometres away.
Maharashtra has assigned ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai to meet activists of the Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti in Belgaum on December 3 and hold talks with them on the decades-old border dispute with Karnataka. Patil and Desai have been appointed as the coordinating ministers for the border row with a mandate to coordinate with the legal team regarding the court case on the border dispute between the two states.
Taking to Twitter, Patil said there was a demand from the Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti to hold discussions on the border issue.
As per a recent government resolution, the ministers will be responsible for coordination with the Samiti that roots for merging of the Marathi-speaking areas in Karnataka with the state. Patil and Desai will also look into the problems faced by residents of 865 villages in Karnataka over which the Maharashtra government has staked its claim in this decades old issue, the resolution said.
As the border dispute is set to be heard in the Supreme Court on November 30, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said discussions are on with the state's legal experts regarding the strategy to be adopted.
Bommai also remained cautious while responding to demands by people of some villages in Maharashtra, bordering Karnataka, reportedly wanting their merger with the state.
"On November 30, there is a case in the Supreme Court, yesterday I held a meeting with the Karnataka Border and River Formation Commission chairperson and former judge of the Supreme Court Justice Shivaraj Patil and other experts regarding the strategy and legal perspective," said Bommai, adding he will hold discussions with senior advocate in the state's legal panel Mukul Rohatgi in New Delhi, regarding the strategy and the matters that might specifically come up during the hearing on Wednesday.
The border dispute dates back to the 1960s after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines.
Maharashtra laid claim to Belagavi which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency as it has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population. It also laid claim to 80 Marathi-speaking villages which are currently part of Karnataka.
Responding to a question on people of some villages in Maharashtra bordering Karnataka, reportedly demanding merger of their areas with the state and as to what was his message for them, Bommai, not wanting to comment much, said the matter was pending before the Supreme Court, which will decide.
"All these matters are before the Supreme Court...I have myself said what I have to already, but as the matter is before the Supreme Court, it has now been decided not to discuss them, as it may have some implications. It will be decided by the Supreme Court," he said.
Slamming the neighbouring state's leaders for provocative statements on the border dispute, Bommai had recently said Solapur and Akkalkot regions in Maharashtra belonged to Karnataka.
Rejecting criticism over a recent meeting between Karnataka and Maharashtra Governors to discuss various issues pertaining to both states and attempts to link it to the border issue being raked up again, Bommai on Monday said, "Governors had met for a different purpose, this is a case pending in the Supreme Court, that has come up for hearing that's all."
(With PTI inputs)