Amid the simmering border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra, which has been ongoing for weeks now, National Congress Party (NCP) leader Amol Kolhe said on Friday that Union home minister Amit Shah will meet the chief ministers of both states on December 14.
Kolhe informed about Shah's meeting with Eknath Shinde and Basavaraj Bommai after meeting the home minister along with a delegation of parliamentarians of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Delhi, news agency PTI reported.
During the meeting, the MVA delegation told Shah that the border row between Maharashtra and Karnataka has reached such a crucial stage that it could turn into a full-blown violence. The NCP leader claimed the home minister has summoned the meeting with Shinde and Bommai.
The Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute though is decades old, a fresh one began last month after Bommai claimed some villages of Maharashtra's Sangli district have passed a resolution to merge with his state owing to water crisis. This led to a war of words between him and his fellow BJP colleague Devendra Fadnavis, deputy CM of Maharashtra. Fadnavis outright quashed Bommai's claims and sent a strong message to the Karnataka CM, saying not an inch of the western state will go to the south.
In some recent developments, protests emerged in Karnataka on Tuesday after a pro-Kannada organisation staged a stir against the proposed visit of two Maharashtra ministers to Belgavi. Later however, the ministers postponed their visit after Bommai said their arrival may create a law-and-order situation in the district. Furthermore, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has announced it is ceasing its bus services to the neighbouring state on the advice of the state home department owing to protests.
{{/usCountry}}In some recent developments, protests emerged in Karnataka on Tuesday after a pro-Kannada organisation staged a stir against the proposed visit of two Maharashtra ministers to Belgavi. Later however, the ministers postponed their visit after Bommai said their arrival may create a law-and-order situation in the district. Furthermore, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has announced it is ceasing its bus services to the neighbouring state on the advice of the state home department owing to protests.
{{/usCountry}}Bommai took to Twitter on Tuesday saying he had a telephonic conversation with Shinde and agreed there should be “peace and law and order to be maintained in both the states”. The Karnataka CM stated that the dispute should be resolved legally in the Supreme Court, where the case currently lies.
NCP boss Sharad Pawar, meanwhile, took a swipe at Bommai saying the Karnataka CM is triggering “anti-Maharashtra protests”. On Thursday, he said that the BJP-headed Centre cannot remain a mute spectator of the border dispute.