Border dispute with Maharashtra: Belagavi put on high alert as SC hearing nears

Belagavi: As the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute issue is scheduled to be taken up by Supreme Court on Wednesday, precautionary security measures have been put in place in the border district of Belagavi.

Government machinery in the border district has been put on high alert and an additional police force has been deployed as a precaution.

Karnataka ADGP Alok Kumar, on Tuesday, visited the Nippani border check post and held a meeting with officials to review the arrangements for maintaining the law and order situation. Top police officials from Maharashtra were also in attendance at the meeting.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai visited New Delhi and held discussions with the senior advocate in the state’s legal panel, Mukul Rohatgi, in the wake of the case coming up before the Supreme Court for hearing on November 30.

The border dispute dates back to the 1960s after the reorganization of states on linguistic lines.

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 80 Marathi-speaking villages which are currently part of Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai have been appointed as the coordinating ministers for the border row with a mandate to coordinate with the legal team regarding the court case on the border dispute between the two states. They will meet activists of the Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti in Belgaum on December 3 and hold talks with them on the decades-old border dispute.

(With PTI inputs)