Karnataka ready to present its case before Supreme Court: Bommai on border dispute with Maharashtra

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Nov 25, 2022: With the border row with Maharashtra again escalating, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said they have a strong case to argue for the merger of some villages in Maharashtra with Karnataka. Bommai said his government has made elaborate preparations to present their argument before the Supreme Court when the border dispute case comes up for hearing.

 

The statement comes after Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis categorically said there is no question of merger of any Maharashtra village with Karnataka.

"There is no question of any village of Maharashtra getting merged with any other state...Maharashtra wants to resolve the problem amicably with Karnataka," said Shinde.

Responding to reports that Eknath Shinde is holding meetings about the border dispute case pending before the Supreme Court, Bommai said, "They (Maharashtra) have already moved the Supreme Court and we have already made our preparations to present our case. The resolution to present our case in the Supreme Court is a decision that has been taken in front of the All Parties Conference and the Border Development Authority. Our focus is towards presenting our case in court."

ALL PARTY MEETING NEXT WEEK

Responding to reports that Eknath Shinde spoke about resolving the border dispute through talks, Bommai said an all-party meeting has been convened next week to discuss in detail about how the governments want to go about resolving the dispute amicably.

"The border dispute is over but Maharashtra is raking up this row. The resolution of gram panchayat and other related issues are with us. All these will be debated in the Supreme Court," said the Karnataka CM.

A war of words broke out between Bommai and Maharashtra Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis over the border dispute between the two states.

It all started when Bommai claimed that some villages, reeling from a water crisis, in Maharashtra’s Sangli district passed a resolution to merge with Karnataka. However, Devendra Fadnavis said no village has sought merger with Karnataka recently, and there is no question of any border village "going anywhere".

MAHARASHTRA-KARNATAKA BORDER DISPUTE

Maharashtra, since its inception in 1960, has been entangled in a dispute with Karnataka over the status of Belgaum (also called Belagavi) district and 80 other Marathi speaking villages which are in the control of the southern state.

The border dispute dates back to the 1960s after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines. The case is now before the Supreme Court.

On Monday, the Karnataka chief minister said he had formed a formidable team of senior lawyers to fight the border dispute case when it comes up for hearing in the Supreme Court.

On Tuesday, the Maharashtra government appointed Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai as nodal ministers to coordinate with the state’s legal team regarding the pending court case.

Courtesy: India Today