Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde with his deputy Devendra Fadnavis during a press conference in Nagpur on Dec. 20, 2022.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on December 27, 2022, unanimously passed a resolution to legally pursue the inclusion of 865 Marathi-speaking villages in Karnataka into the State, amid the raging boundary dispute between the two States.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde tabled the resolution during the winter session of the Legislature being held in Nagpur, to fight the case in the Supreme Court to include Belagavi, Karwar, Nipani, Bidar Bhalki and others into Maharashtra.
Mr. Shinde said the Karnataka state legislature had passed a resolution on the issue to purposely fuel the border row.
Explained | What is the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute?
The resolution, passed unanimously, stated the Central government should urge the Karnataka government to implement the decision taken in the meeting with the Union Home Minister and the Karnataka government should ensure the safety of Marathi-speaking people in its State.
On December 14, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said both the States will not make any claim against each other until the Supreme Court gives its verdict.
Resolution tabled a day after Uddhav suggested disputed area should be made a UT
The resolution was brought in a day after former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had demanded that the disputed districts along the Maharashtra-Karnataka border be brought under Centre’s rule till the Supreme Court decides on the issue.
On December 26, speaking at the Maharashtra Legislative Council, Mr Thackeray had hit out at Mr. Shinde’s ‘passiveness’ and had said that while Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai was making one provocative statement after the other in an aggressive manner, why was the Maharashtra CM ‘reluctant’ to speak on the issue.
“The restraint that Maharashtra has been showing has not been reciprocated by Karnataka. The oppression of Marathi-speaking people in the border districts of Karnataka [Belagavi, Karwar, Nippani] continues unabated. It is pointless to pass resolutions in the Legislature,” Mr. Thackeray said, while at the same time censuring the Shinde-Fadnavis government’s ‘delay’ in passing a resolution on this issue.
Maharashtra resolution comes after Karnataka’s resolution
The Karnataka Legislative Assembly had on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution on border row with Maharashtra, resolving to protect the southern state’s interests and not to cede an inch of land to its neighbour. It had called the dispute a “closed chapter.“
Since the State’s creation on May 1, 1960, it has claimed that 865 Marathi-speaking villages should merge into Maharashtra since they were part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency. However, Karnataka has refused to do so claiming the demarcation done on linguistic lines as per the States Reorganisation Act and the 1967 Mahajan Commission Report as final.
With inputs from PTI