Resolution to merge with K’taka: Maha serves police notice to GPs

The Maharashtra government has issued police notices to 11 gram panchayats in Akkalkot taluk of Solapur district for passing a resolution last month to merge with Karnataka — the move comes amid renewed tension between the two states over the decades-long border dispute

The Maharashtra government has issued police notices to 11 gram panchayats in Akkalkot taluk of Solapur district for passing a resolution last month to merge with Karnataka — the move comes amid renewed tension between the two states over the decades-long border dispute.

Police personnel outside Karnataka Bhawan as Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute intensifies, at Vashi, in Navi Mumbai. (Bachchan Kumar/HT Photo)

The gram panchayats that passed the resolution on November 28 are: Alage, Shegoan, Kallakarjal, Dharasang, Kegoan, Devikavata, Shaval, Hilli, Andewadi, Pan Mangarul and Korsegoan. They cover around 42 villages where a large part of the population are Kannada speakers.

The resolution states that these villages were neglected by the Maharashtra government.

According to villagers, the police on December 2served a notice to the gram panchayats warning that charges could be framed against them under section 149 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which pertains to non-bailable arrest warrants. The police also warned gram panchayat officials to inform them before holding any meetings. HT has seen a copy of the notice.

Akkalkot gram panchayat chairperson Sukanya Hunnure, who signed on the resolution copy submitted to the district collector of Solapur on November 28, said “With the consent of every citizen of Akkalkot, we passed a resolution and in our memorandum to the DC, we have clearly asked for a No Objection Letter (NOC) to get merged to our motherland Karnataka, as we wanted to freedom from the vicious clutches of Maharashtra, which has kept us in a pre-Independence state. Not a single civic requirement was met till date.” 

On December 2, 11 other gram panchayats comprising 25 villages in Jat taluk of Sangli district also passed a similar resolution and presented a memorandum to the district collector demanding NoCs to merge with Karnataka.

Jath Taluku Kannada Horata Samiti president Somaling Choudhari told HT on Wednesday: “Maharashtra is intentionally neglecting us as our taluk is dominated by Kannadigas. Our villages are kept in the same situation as it was in 1947. We don’t have a tap water facility, individual or public toilets, street lights, or hospitals.”

“Even though there are 215 Kannada schools in our villages, there is only one teacher for every 200 students. Textbooks are also not provided in time. How can you live in such a situation? As hundreds of our representations went in vain, we finally took the decision of getting merged with Karnataka...” he added.

He further said they were planning to invite Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai to their villages and felicitate him in February.

In response to resolution passed by the 11 panchayats in Jat taluk, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde had sent minister Uttam Samant for talks with local residents and also announced a ₹1,900-crore development package. The ministers held a meeting of all the members of 11 panchayats in the last week of November and assured them of providing all the basic amenities in a year.

“Government has announced an overall developmental package of ₹1,900 crore where every house will be provided with tap water and electricity connection, individual and public toilets, streetlights, roads, good Kannada schools with sufficient teachers and textbooks,” Samant had said during the meeting.