Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said that the Maharashtra delegation meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the raging border dispute between both states will not make any difference, and asserted that his government will not make any compromise on the issue.
Bommai said that he has asked a delegation of Karnataka Members of Parliament to meet Shah on Monday regarding the border issue, and that he would also be soon meeting the Union Home Minister to inform him about the state's "legitimate" stand. A delegation of parliamentarians of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (opposition coalition in Maharashtra) had met Shah on Friday regarding the border dispute with Karnataka.
"Maharashtra delegation meeting the Union Home Minister will not make any difference. Maharashtra has tried this in the past too. The case is in the Supreme Court. Our legitimate case in the Supreme Court is strong. Our government will not make any compromise on the border issue," Bommai tweeted late on Friday night.
"I have asked Karnataka MPs to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday regarding the Karnataka Maharashtra border issue. I will also be meeting the Union Home Minister soon to inform him about the state's legitimate stand," he added. After the meeting on Friday, NCP leader Amol Kolhe, who was part of Maharashtra's delegation, had said that Shah will meet chief ministers of both states on December 14 to soothe tempers on the border dispute.
The border row had intensified earlier this week, with vehicles from either sides being targeted, leaders from both states weighing in, and pro-Kannada and Marathi activists being detained by police amid a tense atmosphere in the border district of Belagavi. Following this, the Karnataka and Maharashtra Chief Ministers spoke to each other over phone and agreed that there should be peace and law and order should be maintained on both sides.
The border issue dates back to 1957 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 814 Marathi-speaking villages which are currently part of Karnataka.
Karnataka maintains the demarcation done on linguistic lines as per the States Reorganisation Act and the 1967 Mahajan Commission Report as final. And, as an assertion that Belagavi is an integral part of the state, Karnataka has built the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, modelled on the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of legislature in Bengaluru, and a legislature session is held there annually.
(With PTI inputs)
