Maharashtra House resolution reiterates claim over Karnataka’s Marathi areas

Chief minister Eknath Shinde moved the resolution days after Union home minister Amit Shah on December 14 announced a six-member ministerial team will discuss the border issue and no state will stake a claim on any territory till the Supreme Court decides the dispute

The Maharashtra assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution reiterating the state’s claim over Karnataka’s Marathi-speaking areas while seeking the Centre’s intervention in resolving the border dispute between the two states.

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Nationalist Congress Party lawmakers outside Maharashtra assembly in Nagpur on Tuesday. (ANI)

Chief minister Eknath Shinde moved the resolution days after Union home minister Amit Shah on December 14 announced a six-member ministerial team will discuss the border issue and no state will stake a claim on any territory till the Supreme Court decides the dispute.

Shah made the announcement after he met Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and Shinde over the matter. He said the dispute cannot be settled on the streets and that the two chief ministers have agreed to do so only through constitutional means.

The Maharashtra assembly condemned the Karnataka administration over its “high-handedness” and anti-Marathi approach in the disputed areas. It said the Maharashtra government will fight the battle for these areas with all its might in the Supreme Court.

Shinde vowed to fight for the disputed areas and said they stand strongly by the Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka.

The resolution asked the Centre to intervene to ensure the implementation of the obligations laid down during the meeting of chief ministers from both states in the presence of Shah. “The Centre should direct Karnataka to act upon the resolution agreed by the two states. The Centre will also be requested to direct the neighbouring state to ensure the safety of the Marathi-speaking people in the disputed areas.”

It referred to the resolution passed over the dispute in the Karnataka assembly on December 22 and accused the neighboring state of deliberately instigating a border dispute.

“The Karnataka government is not acting according to the constitutional conventions. The Maharashtra government has been fighting its legal battle in constitutional ways...”

All parties, including the Opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi grouping, supported the Maharashtra House resolution after Shinde moved it.

Shinde spoke about welfare schemes being implemented for the Marathi-speaking people in the border areas. He said pension was being given to the families, who lost loved ones for the cause.

Shinde said the state government has also brought the people in Marathi-speaking villages in Karnataka under the ambit of its health schemes. He added the state government will request Karnataka to not ill-treat Marathi-speaking people and not compel them to use Kannada.

The Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute dates back to the 1960s when states were reorganised along linguistic lines.

People in Belgavi (then Belgaum) and other areas have been demanding their inclusion in Maharashtra since citing the majority of Marathi-speaking people in these areas.

The Bharatiya Janata Party rules Karnataka while it is the senior partner in the ruling coalition in Maharashtra.

The border dispute flared up after Bommai said his government was considering laying claim on 40 Kannada-speaking villages from Jat Tehsil in Maharashtra’s Sangli district. Violence erupted after vehicles from both states were attacked and damaged in Belgavi and Pune.

Since its creation in May 1960, Maharashtra has claimed that 865 villages, including Belgavi, Karwar, and Nippani, should be merged into Maharashtra.