Border Row: Raise Height Of Dams On Rivers Flowing Into Karnataka To 'Rein It In', Says NCP leader

Nationalist Congress Party leader Jayant Patil said Karnataka was deliberately harassing Marathi-speaking people in its border areas

Nationalist Congress Party leader Jayant Patil (R).

Source : PTI file

Amid the raging border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka, Nationalist Congress Party leader Jayant Patil has said Maharashtra should raise the height of the upstream dams to "rein in" the neighbouring state. The decades-old boundary dispute issue was raised in the legislatures of both states on Tuesday.

Speaking in the Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday, Patil said Karnataka was deliberately harassing Marathi-speaking people in its border areas.

“We should reply to what the Karnataka chief minister says in the same language. If they have so much attitude, then we will raise the height of dams on Koyna and Warna rivers and that of all the dams in Satara and Kolhapur districts. They (Karnataka leaders) would not be brought under control otherwise," the former Maharashtra water resources minister said.

"If Karnataka holds us to ransom, then we have water,” he added.

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 Marathi-speaking population. It also laid claim to more than 800 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.

Meanwhile, the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly Siddaramiah slammed CM Basavaraj Bommai and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to have agreed to form a coordination committee with Maharashtra.

Taking to Twitter, Siddaramaiah alleged that this is a ploy of Maharashtra to keep the border issue alive. "Union Home Minister Amit Shah should not have called for a meeting on the Belagavi-Maharashtra border issue and Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai should not have participated in it. This is a ploy of Maharashtra to keep the border issue alive," he tweeted.