Amid border row, more villages seek merger with K’taka

This is the third set of villages demanding the merger with Karnataka, citing the lack of basic amenities in Maharashtra.

Amid the ongoing Karnataka-Maharashtra border row, more villages from the Marathawada region have urged the Maharashtra government to merge their areas with Karnataka, people familiar with developments said.

More villages from the Marathawada region have urged the Maharashtra government to merge their areas with Karnataka (ANI)

This is the third set of villages demanding the merger, citing the lack of basic amenities in the neighbouring state.

After Jat in Sangli and Akkalkot in Solapur districts in south Maharashtra, ten villages in Deoni taluk in Latur district have urged the government to provide them with the basic civic amenities or else merge them into Karnataka where villagers are enjoying civic and agriculture benefits.

A memorandum was submitted to the Latur district collector on September 6 this year, in which ten villages surrounding Bomballi in Deoni tehsil had listed the civic facilities they were deprived of.

The villagers also asked to be given a separate gram panchayat status to Bomballi village, and warned of boycotting all the elections, including the gram panchayat elections scheduled on December 18, if their demands are not met.

As per instructions of the district collector, Deoni tahsildar met the villagers, who reiterated their demands. However, the villagers said it was of no use.

As the elections were announced to GPs, 74 voters signed a memorandum and submitted it to the district collector on November 23, in which they again mentioned boycotting the elections and urged to merge them with Karnataka.

The ten villages surrounding Bomballi have a population of about 12,000, of which about 7,000 are voters. More than 90% of the population are Marathis. Bomballi is situated just about 500 metres from Balki taluk of Bidar district in Karnataka.

Jnanobha Karabari, a leader of Bomballi village, said, “Most of the villages in Deoni tehsil have no roads, street lights, no individual tap water connection to houses. The public toilets got damaged, and people go to the outskirts to attend to nature urgency. Our dozens of representations to the government went in vain for which we decided to boycott all the elections and to merge with Karnataka.”

Another leader from the village, Devidas Dondibha, said “Despite being adjoined to Karnataka, our land is deserted, dried whereas it is irrigated in Karnataka. Our Karnataka counterparts are enjoying every facility while we have nothing. We don’t have any language problem with merging with Karnataka as we know both languages.”

However, the villagers said they would reconsider their decisions if they are provided with the facilities that Karnataka farmers are getting, which includes ₹50,000 aid to every farmer every year, ten horsepower supply to pump sets and round-the-clock health facility with MBBS doctors and staff nurse.

Villagers, who are mostly agriculturalists said though it was unfair to place such a demand to merge with the other state, there was no option left as their survival, and the future of the children were important, which was not favourable in Maharashtra. They said they would hold an indefinite hunger strike before Deoni tehsil and Jat deputy collector’s office before filing a suit in court about merging with Karnataka.

“Maharashtra has not responded to our demand of getting water to agricultural land and hospital since 1994. We are surviving because of Karnataka, where we are getting everything, including a medical facility for which we want to join Karnataka,” said Abhay Suryavanshi, an elder from Bomballi village.