Maha ministers may be restricted from visiting Belagavi amid border row: Cops

The instructions of Union home minister Amit Shah following a meeting with the chief ministers of Karnataka and Maharashtra over the border dispute may stop visits planned by leaders of the neighbouring state in Belagavi, police said on Thursday.

The instructions of Union home minister Amit Shah following a meeting with the chief ministers of Karnataka and Maharashtra over the border dispute may stop visits planned by leaders of the neighbouring state in Belagavi, police said on Thursday.

Shah asked both state governments to ensure that organisations in both states do not involve in such acts which harm the harmony of people (ANI)

One of the instructions by the home minister was that both states should not stake a claim on any land until the border dispute is settled in the Supreme Court.

Apart from that, Shah asked both state governments to ensure that organisations in both states do not involve in such acts which harm the harmony of people and traders and damage public property.

According to police, this instruction could stop the planned visits by two Maharashtra ministers and Marathi organisations taking part in public functions like the ‘Mahamelava’.

The pro-Maharashtrian organisation Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) and local Shiva Sena invite its sympathisers and political leaders from Maharashtra to address the ‘Mahamelava’, which is organised on the inaugural day of every Karnataka legislative session in Belagavi.

MES has invited ten leaders of all the political parties in Maharashtra, including former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray of Maharashtra Navanirman Sena, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar for the Mahamelava.

“We have no objection to ‘Mahamelava’ being held, but were concerned about the leaders from Maharashtra coming here during the border dispute and giving provocative speeches,” said a senior police officer said. “The instruction from Home Ministry is a positive step,” he added.

Former independent MLA Manohar Kinekar, who had won the election with the support of MES from Belagavi Rural, said that the instructions given by Shah were favouring Karnataka.

“These restrictions are denying the Marathi-speaking population from raising their protest during a crucial stage of the dispute it unfair,” he said.

“Leaders from Maharashtra used to attend our meetings, ‘Mahamelava’, ‘Black Day’ etc. This encouraged us and helped us get support to raise our concerns. The instructions have prevented this,” he added.

Kinekar added that Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fednavis should not have agreed to Shah’s recommendations.

MES leader, Deepak Dalavi said, “Karnataka’s intention of constructing Suvarna Soudha and holding sessions once a year is just to provoke Marathis in Karnataka and to state that Belagavi is its part and parcel.”

He added that their other demand was to declare Belagavi and other disputed places in Karnataka as Union Territory until the dispute was settled in court.

Meanwhile, Kannada organisations were also not satisfied with the decisions in the meeting.

Kannada Organisations’ Action Committee convenor Ashok Chandaragi, in a release, stated that Shah’s nod to Shinde’s and Fednavis’s demand for the Union government to remain neutral in the case was not a good move as Maharashtra in its suit filed at Supreme Court in 2004 has made the Centre as the first and Karnataka as the second respondent.

“How a respondent in a case can remain neutral. Does it make any sense, Karnataka SC Basavaraj Bommai should have questioned and not agreed to the point,” he said.

However, he said that Karnataka may now appoint three ministers to the joint committee as it had not appointed a minister to look after the border case. Maharashtra has two ministers looking into the issue.