A team of Maharashtra ministers, including Chandrakant Patil, has postponed their visit to Belagavi until December 6th to...
Digital Desk: Belagavi, a major site in the Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary conflict, is experiencing a surge in political activity. A group of Maharashtra ministers scheduled to visit portions of Belagavi on December 3rd has been rescheduled for December 6th, the death anniversary of Dr. B R Ambedkar.
Ambedkarite organisations have urged Maharashtra ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai to visit on December 6th to join activities commemorating Babasaheb Ambedkar's death anniversary, Patil said in a tweet on Thursday. The team also comprises MP Dhairyasheel Mane, who was named head of the boundary issue expert committee.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Bommai is in Belagavi's Ramdurga on Friday for a government event linked to a development project, but he will not be visiting any border districts, according to reports.
On Wednesday, security in Belagavi was increased in expectation of increased tensions following the hearing of the dispute case in the Supreme Court. The assault on a Kannada-speaking student on Wednesday evening in Belagavi has heightened emotions.
Patil met with former Karnataka MLA M. G. Muley and a Marathi-speaking group from Bidar, Karnataka, on Thursday to discuss border issues. He tweeted images from the meeting and stated that the "coalition administration in Maharashtra stands solidly with Marathi brothers in the border districts."
This comes a day after the Supreme Court scheduled a hearing on the rising Maharashtra-Karnataka border tension based on a Maharashtra government petition. However, the Supreme Court did not hear the petition on Wednesday.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai told reporters on Thursday that Karnataka's position on the border issue is that Maharashtra's petition is not maintainable. "Karnataka's position is very clear; Maharashtra's appeal is not maintainable; that is our position, and our attorneys will explain it." "Our position is both constitutional and legal," he explained.
The border conflict, which dates back to the 1960s following the reorganisation of states along linguistic lines, was recently resurrected after CM Bommai stated that several villages in Maharashtra's Sangli district had approved a resolution asking to relocate to Karnataka due to severe water scarcity.
To this, Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reacted angrily, "not a single village would go anywhere." The two states are at odds over Maharashtra's claim to Belagavi and other border villages with a significant Marathi-speaking population.
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