Border Row: Maharashtra Suspends Bus Services To Karnataka, CMs Call For Peace. Key Points

With the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute nowhere near an end, the issue has escalated on the ground. Here's a look at the latest developments in the matter.

Governments of Karnataka and Maharashtra have held talks on the border dispute issue. In pic: Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai (L) and Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde.

Source : PTI & Getty Images

The Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute escalated on Tuesday with trucks and buses from both the states coming under attack even as the matter remains pending for hearing in Supreme Court. Owing to the tension, the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation (MSRTC) on Tuesday afternoon suspended bus services to the neighbouring state on a police advisory.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka and Maharashtra chief ministers spoke to each other over phone on Tuesday night and agreed that there should be peace and law and order should be maintained on both sides.

Talks between the governments seem to have had no impact on the ground. While Karnataka has a BJP leader, Basavaraj Bommai, as the CM, Maharashtra is being ruled by the BJP-Shiv Sena (Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena) alliance, with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as the Deputy CM.

The Opposition in both states have taken the opportunity to attack the governments. As NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar asked Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde to take all parties in confidence before coming to a decision, Leader of Opposition in Karnataka and former CM Siddaramaiah made a similar demand and urged Bommai to convene an all-party meeting.

Here are the key developments in the matter:

• A pro-Kannada organisation stopped trucks with Maharashtra number plates and smeared them with black ink and hurled stones at them in Belagavi on Tuesday.
• Later in the day, workers from the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) painted 'Jai Maharashtra' on buses with Karnataka licence plates in Pune.
• Sharad Pawar said warned that the issue “shouldn’t take a wrong turn” and that the “Opposition’s patience” must not be tested. He also urged all MPs to raise the issue in the winter session of Parliament that begins on Wednesday.
• Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Siddaramaiah on Tuesday accused the Maharashtra government of raking up the issue for political reasons and was laying an unfair claim to the border areas.
• The Belagavi district administration in Karnataka on Monday issued orders barring entry of the two Maharashtra ministers, Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraje Desai, and leaders to the city. They were scheduled to meet leaders of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti. Prohibitory orders were issued under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, barring their entry, besides that of an MP, who are members of the Maharashtra High Power Committee on the Border Dispute.
• Leaders of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti were detained on Tuesday by the police at the DC office in Belagavi when they reached there to seek permission to allow entry of Patil and Desai to Belagavi.

• According to The Times of India, 10 gram panchayats from the Akkalkot tehsil in Solapur district have passed the resolution in their gram sabhas to join Karnataka. They have sent a petition to the Solapur collector’s office, seeking the Maharashtra government’s approval for the move.’
• The Maharashtra government has constituted a two-member committee, comprising ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraje Desai for coordination of the legal and other matters related to the six-decade-old border dispute.
• The Karnataka Government has also formed a committee of senior advocates to fight the case in the Supreme Court.
• Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai tweeted about the conversation with his Maharashtra counterpart Eknath Shinde. He, however, asserted that there is no change in Karnataka's stand as far as the border is concerned

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

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai recently sought a merger of "Kannada-speaking" areas in Maharashtra's Akkalkot and Solapur and had also said some villages in Jat taluka in Sangli district wanted to join the southern state.

(With inputs from PTI and ANI.)