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Huge protest near Maharashtra-Karnataka border over dispute| Video
The decades-old dispute was discussed last week by Union Home Minister Amit Shah with both chief ministers.
A massive gathering of demonstrators was witnessed on Monday near the Maharashtra-Karnataka border days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah took up the matter with Chief Ministers of both the states - Eknath Shinde and Basavaraj Bommai. Shah had announced last week that a ministerial team will take care of the discussions; the decades old matter is already in the Supreme Court. "Both sides have agreed that the dispute cannot be resolved on the road, but only through constitutional means,” the Union Home Minister had told reporters after the meeting.
On Monday, however, as winter session began in both the state assemblies, a huge demonstration was staged near the Kongoli Toll Plaza near the Karnataka-Maharashtra border, news agency ANI reported. Among those who took part in the stir were members of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti and Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
In the contested Belagavi region, where the Karnataka assembly session is taking place, groups were refused to hold protests and large gatherings have been restricted amid heightened security.
This comes just two days after top leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi combine were seen hitting the streets in Maharashtra against the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government over various issues, including the border row.
On Sunday, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut - member of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) - also targeted Prime Minster Narendra Modi in his column in the party's mouthpiece - Saamna. The Prime Minister "mediates on the Ukraine war matter but is silent on the issue pertaining to two states," he said, adding that these were not qualities of a good leader.
The Maharashtra assembly too witnessed protests on Monday amid sloganeering against governments of both the states. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had last week said that the proposal on the issue would be brought in the state assembly during the session.
Maharashtra claims Belagavi (currently under Karnataka) and nearby areas as parts of the state, citing a large proportion of Marathi-speaking population. The decades-old dispute resurfaced after the Karnataka Chief Minister recently claimed that some villages in Maharashtra's Sangli district had passed a resolution to join the southern state due to a lack of basic facilities.
(With inputs from ANI)
