Bommai speaks to Amit Shah over Maharashtra border row

Chief Ministers of two states likely to meet next week

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be held on December 14 or 15 over the border row between Karnataka and Maharashtra, said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. Talking to reporters in Vidhana Soudha here on Saturday, he said a section of MPs from Karnataka will be meeting Shah on Monday.

“I have asked a delegation of our MPs to meet (Amit Shah) on Monday. I have also spoken to Shah. He said that he will send information and in two to three days he will be calling me and the Maharashtra Chief Minister. Most probably, that meeting will take place on December 14 or 15,” Bommai said.

The Chief Minister said he has already informed Shah about Karnataka’s stand and facts regarding the dispute, along with details. “On Monday, our MPs will be sharing all the details, and as soon as he (Shah) calls, I will also go and reiterate Karnataka’s stand before him,” he added.

All party meeting

Bommai also said an all-party meeting will be held to discuss this issue and spoken informally with former CM HD Kumaraswamy and Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah.

The meeting date will be fixed in consultation with them. Earlier on Friday, a delegation of parliamentarians of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (opposition coalition in Maharashtra) met Shah regarding the border dispute.

The Chief Minister, however, said that the Maharashtra delegation meeting Shah on the border dispute will not make any difference, and asserted that his government will not make any compromise on the issue. Noting that Maharashtra has tried this in the past too, he said, “The case is in the Supreme Court. Our legitimate case in the Supreme Court is strong.”

Long-standing dispute

The border row had intensified earlier this week, with vehicles from either side being targeted, leaders from both states weighing in and pro-Kannada and Marathi activists being detained by police amid a tense atmosphere in the border district of Belagavi.

Following this, the Karnataka and Maharashtra Chief Ministers spoke to each other over phone and agreed that there should be peace and law and order should be maintained on both sides. The border issue dates back to 1957 after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines.

Maharashtra laid claim to Belagavi, which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, as it has a sizeable Marathispeaking population. It also laid claim to 814 Marathi-speaking villages which are currently part of Karnataka.

Karnataka maintains the demarcation done on linguistic lines as per the States Reorganisation Act and the 1967 Mahajan Commission Report as final. And, as an assertion that Belagavi is an integral part of the state, Karnataka has built the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, modelled on the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of legislature in Bengaluru, and a legislature session is held there annually