Political heat over Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary dispute escalates

The political heat over the interstate border row has escalated with Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai hitting back at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis terming his statement on the issue provocativeNo village in Maharashtra will go to Karnataka The state government will fight strongly in the Supreme Court to get Marathi speaking villages in Karnataka including BelgaumKarwarNipani said FadnavisIn a retort Bommai terming it a provocative statement said His Fadnavis dream will never come true Our government is committed to protecting our states land water and bordersHe further said that there was no question of giving up any space in the border districts of KarnatakaIn fact he said Our demand is that the Kannada speaking areas of Maharashtra like Solapur and Akkalkot should join KarnatakaAlso Read Kerala Transgendercouple barred from tying the knot at templeThe dispute over Belagavi dates back to the 1960s after the reorganisation of States on linguistic linesEarlier this week the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra appointed two ministers to coordinate with the legal team regarding the court case on the dispute set to come up in the Supreme CourtBommai said soon after that the State has deployed a battery of top lawyers including Mukul Rohatgi and Shyam Diwan to fight its caseBommai said since 2004 the Maharashtra government has filed a case in the Apex court over the border issue So far they have not succeeded and they will not succeed in future as well We are geared up to strengthen our legal battleThe Karnataka CM had claimed that the Panchayats in Jath Taluka in Sangli district of Maharashtra had passed a resolution in the past to merge with Karnataka when there was a severe drought situation and acute drinking water crisis and his government has evolved schemes to help them by providing waterResponding to this Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur on Wednesday These villages in Jat Taluk had introduced a resolution on the issue of water scarcity in 2012 Presently none of the villages have introduced any resolutionKarnataka has repeatedly maintained that the Mahajan Commission report on the border issue is finaland there is no question of letting go even an inch of Karnatakas borderBommai reiterated this week that there is no example to show that what had been done under the States Reorganisation Act was reviewedThe border dispute is a political tool used by all parties in Maharashtra But they will never succeed he had saidShinde said earlier this week Late Balasaheb Thackeray was always a staunch supporter of the states demand to make Belgaum Belagavi a part of Maharashtra We have concentrated our focus on solving the issue If required the number of lawyers would be increasedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever