Bengaluru/Mumbai: A festering inter-state dispute has flared up once more after Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde promised to increase a pension scheme to freedom fighters in Marathi-speaking border villages in Karnataka and introduced a number of different measures.
The Basavaraj Bommai-led Karnataka authorities responded by saying particular grants for the event of Kannada colleges in Maharashtra in addition to saying pension for these concerned in ‘Ekikaran’ (unification) motion of Kannada-speaking areas.
“The border row has turn out to be a political software in Maharashtra and any celebration which is in energy will increase this difficulty for political functions. However they haven’t been profitable but and (neither) sooner or later. We’re able to defending the borders of Karnataka and have taken steps. We now have labored collectively in relation to land, language and water of Karnataka and have fought collectively,” Bommai mentioned on Tuesday, demonstrating his dedication to “nela, jala, bhashe” (land, water and language) within the poll-bound state
The one-upmanship between the 2 states comes at a time when the Supreme Courtroom is predicted to listen to the border dispute shortly. In September, the apex court docket listed the matter to be heard from 23 November however the listening to was delayed.
The brand new spherical of confrontations places the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) on a sticky wicket as it’s in energy in Karnataka and has shaped the federal government as a part of an alliance with the Shinde faction of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra, which stakes claims over 800 villages like Bidar, Balki, Nippani, and Karwar, maintains that they be returned to its fold as Marathi audio system outnumber Kannadigas there.
Shinde first rejiiged a high-power committee on the border dispute and appointed himself because the panel chairman. Union Minister Narayan Rane, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, Nationalist Congress Occasion (NCP) president Sharad Pawar and former Congress CM Prithviraj Chavan are among the many members of this newly re-organised panel.
Fashioned in 2014 when a Congress-Nationalist Congress Occasion (NCP) authorities was in energy, the panel was reorganised earlier twice by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) authorities in 2020 and 2022.
The demand to annex Marathi-speaking border areas of Karnataka with Maharashtra was one of many main agendas of the Bal Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, which led to many violent protests over the problem up to now. The MVA authorities had strengthened the state’s Maharashtra-Karnataka border cell to advise within the ongoing authorized battle in addition to launch books and maintain conferences on the problem.
On Monday, Shinde appointed cupboard ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai to supervise Maharashtra’s authorized battle over the problem within the Supreme Courtroom.
Aside from saying the pension scheme in border areas, Shinde mentioned his authorities will even take steps to increase the Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya Yojana to disputed areas.
“The state authorities will battle within the Supreme Courtroom and make all efforts to incorporate Marathi-speaking areas like Belgaum, Karwar and Nipani in Maharashtra,” Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis mentioned in Nagpur Wednesday, including that there isn’t any enmity between the 2 states and that it’s only a authorized difficulty.
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Genesis of the dispute
After the reorganisation of states in 1956, Belagavi and a number of other different areas, which have been a part of the erstwhile Bombay presidency, grew to become a part of the Mysore state (later renamed as Karnataka in 1973). Maharashtra had challenged the choice, saying there was a better proportion of Marathi audio system in these areas.
The Centre then shaped the Mahajan Fee in October 1966 following which the panel submitted its report in August 1967. Whereas 264 villages have been proposed to be transferred to Maharashtra, the report prompt Belgaum (now referred to as Belagavi) and 247 villages stay with Karnataka. In 2004, Maharashtra moved the Supreme Courtroom in 2004 to resolve the border dispute.
“It’s a long-pending dispute. Maharashtra has filed the swimsuit during which it’s claiming a lot of villages, together with Belagavi. The Mahajan panel was appointed on its insistence and the report was submitted to Parliament. Karnataka agreed to the report however Maharashtra went to the court docket once more. That swimsuit itself is just not maintainable, is our foremost rivalry,” Maruti B. Zirali, an advocate who’s a part of Karnataka authorized group, advised The Print.
In Karnataka, the Bommai authorities can’t afford to take a tender method on the border row particularly as Winter session of the meeting is starting from 19 December in Belagavi, the epicentre of the dispute. The southern state will go to the polls subsequent yr, and the BJP’s power comes from the Kittur-Karnataka area (previously Mumbai-Karnataka).
In 2012, the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha was inaugurated in Belagavi as a second energy centre after Bengaluru to reassert Karnataka’s declare over the area in addition to to handle issues of its northern districts.
Activists allege that the Karnataka authorities has not taken an energetic position within the difficulty in comparison with its counterparts in Maharashtra. “One, there isn’t any border in-charge minister. There isn’t any high-powered committee and a border safety committee has not had even one assembly within the final three years,” Belagavi Kannada Organisations’ Motion Committee convener Ashok Chandargi mentioned.
“There’s yet another crucial level. What’s the position of the union authorities within the Supreme Courtroom as a result of they’re respondent primary (within the swimsuit filed by Maharashtra)?” he contended.
The Modi authorities had authorised the change of title from Belgaum to Belagavi in 2014 regardless of protests from Maharashtra.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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