Maharashtra-Karnataka Border Row: Will Attend Meeting Chaired By Home Minister, Says Bommai

Karnataka's legislators will meet with the Union Home Minister to discuss the state's position. I'll go to the meeting as soon as he calls, said Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai (File Photo)

Source : PTI

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai stated on Saturday that a meeting on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and attended by the chief ministers of both states, will be held shortly.

The border issue has erupted in the previous two weeks, with some violent incidents in Belagavi and Maharashtra's border regions.

"Our legislators will meet with the Union Home Minister to convey Karnataka's position. Most likely, Amit Shah will convene a conference shortly to ensure peace amongst the people of both states. I'll go to the meeting as soon as he calls," Bommai was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. 

Maharashtra-Karnataka border row | Our MPs are going to meet Union HM & explain Karnataka's stand. Most probably Amit Shah will call a meeting soon so that there is peace among people of both states. As soon as he calls, I'll go & attend the meeting: Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai pic.twitter.com/dGMN4ehXQM

— ANI (@ANI) December 10, 2022

The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) on Thursday sought to raise the Maharashtra-Karnataka border row in Rajya Sabha but was disallowed by the Chair.  When the House reconvened for the day, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar stated that he had received notices under Rule 267 but was rejecting them because they were not in order and did not mention the rule.

Notices under Rule 267 request that the day's business be suspended in order to hold a debate on the topic at hand.

The Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) gave the notice under rule 267, saying the border problem between Karnataka and Maharashtra is vital and needs to be resolved at the national level.

Maharashtra-Karnataka Border Row

Maharashtra has claimed that 865 villages, including Belagavi (formerly Belgaum), Carvar, and Nipani, should be integrated into the state since its inception on May 1, 1960. Karnataka, on the other hand, has refused to cede its land.

With India's groundbreaking state boundary redrawing act in 1956 and the founding of Maharashtra four years later, certain territories along the state's southern tip, on the border with Karnataka, became embroiled in a conflict.

In 1966, the Mahajan Commission, a government panel, rejected Maharashtra's claim to Belgaum and recommended a settlement involving the exchange of some territories, which was rejected by the state but supported by Karnataka.

Several attempts to resolve the dispute over the next four decades failed, and Maharashtra went to the Supreme Court in 2004.

Karnataka responded by renaming Belgaum to Belagavi and constructing a second assembly in the district to bolster its claim to the region. The two states have been at odds ever since, with the matter pending in the Supreme Court. The Congress-led government at the Centre supported the 1960 state structure in 2010.

The latest flare-up occurred two weeks ago, when Maharashtra's new Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, keen to demonstrate his dedication to the state's causes, chose two top ministers to escalate the legal and political fight.

Stone-throwing political cadres attacked and defiled buses from both states on Tuesday and Wednesday in Karnataka's Belagavi and Maharashtra's Pune, prompting Union Home Minister Amit Shah to request a meeting with the Chief Ministers of both states next week.