Maha govt releases funds for Marathis living in border districts in Karnataka

The Maharashtra government has released funds worth ₹2 crore to carry on its cultural activities in the border districts of Bidar and Belagavi in Karnataka, people familiar with the developments said on Tuesday

The Maharashtra government has released funds worth ₹2 crore to carry on its cultural activities in the border districts of Bidar and Belagavi in Karnataka, people familiar with the developments said on Tuesday.

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Earlier, the Maharashtra government had opened service centres across Belagavi to enrol specifically Marathi-speaking population for its health insurance scheme.

Chief minister Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government had released the funds just a day before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections (on March 16), said the people quoted earlier.

The funds will be utilised for the construction of “Maharashtra Sanskrutika Bhavan” (Maharashtra cultural auditorium) in Belagavi and Nippani at an estimated cost of ₹25 lakh each, said the people.

The Raghunath Maharaj Shikshan Sansthe in Bidar which provides education in Marathi medium has been sanctioned ₹25 lakh to continue its educational activities, said the people.

An amount of ₹25 lakh has also been released to the Satyam Shivam Sundaram Development Association in the same district “to continue its social work among Marathis,” said the people. The association has been instructed to utilise the funds to provide education related materials such as stationery items, textbooks, and for purchasing hospital related equipment such as ambulances, etc, for Marathis living in Bidar and Belagavi districts.

Reacting to the development, the pro-Maharashtrian organisation Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) in Belagavi welcomed the government’s move, saying that the sum released will help in keeping the “state’s culture alive in the border areas of Karnataka.”

MES spokesman Vikas Kalaghatagi said: “The sum released by the government will be used to keep the Maharashtrian culture alive along the border villages in the state and also to encourage students to take education in the Marathi language.”

“We thank Maharashtra for showing concern toward us even though we never demanded any funds,” Kalaghatagi said, clarifying that not a single rupee from the funds would be used for the activities of the organisation. “It (the funds) will be purely utilised to keep our culture alive here and to prevent our students from taking up education in other languages,” Kalaghatagi said.

Former MLA-cum-MES president Manohar Kinekar, however, said that the amount “released to construct cultural auditoriums in Belagavi, Nippani, and Bidar won’t be sufficient.Noticing that many Marathi schools on the border of the state are “closing due to a lack of students”, Kinekar, who represented the Belagavi Rural constituency (formerly known as Uchagoan) twice, said: “The funds can be utilised to give scholarships to the students who are taking up the education in the Marathi language.”

In its last budget, Maharashtra had reserved ₹2 crore for health insurance schemes for Marathis residing in 865 villages and towns, including Belagavi, Nippani, Khanapur, Karwar, Bidar, and Balki, on which it claimed rights and also got an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with two hospitals in Belagavi.

After opposition from Kannada outfits, the state government closed the insurance registration offices and issued notices to the hospitals, which led to the cancellation of the MoU with Maharashtra.