The Maharashtra Assembly today passed a resolution demanding that the Centre should declare disputed areas of Belgaum and other boundary areas as Union Territory, till the Supreme Court takes final decision on the border row between Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The Chief Minister, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, moved the resolution, condemning the “unconstitutional and unjustifiable” decision of the Karnataka Government to dissolve Belgaum civic body despite a court stay, which was adopted unanimously.

The Centre should intervene and direct the Karnataka government to reinstate the civic body, Mr Chavan said, adding that he would meet the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on the issue.

The State Government is exploring legal opinion on moving the Linguistic Minorities Commission and court on violation of rights of Marathi speaking people in Belgaum, who are linguistic minorities in Karnataka, Mr Chavan said.

Karnataka ignored court orders

The Karnataka Government had ignored the court orders staying the earlier order of dissolution, asking it to hear the side of the corporators, he said.

The Centre should intervene and direct the Karnataka government to reinstate the civic body and convert the disputed areas of Belgaum and other boundary areas as Union territory till the Supreme Court takes final decision on the issue, Mr Chavan said.

The last hearing was on July 10 and the Supreme Court had given eight weeks’ time to Karnataka to respond, he said.

“I plan to hold a meeting of senior ministers and opposition leaders with lawyers in Delhi soon to discuss the further legal process,” Mr Chavan said.

Besides fighting the case in the apex court to settle the boundary dispute, the State Government is planning to approach the Linguistic Minorities Commission and the court on the issue of atrocities against linguistic minorities, Mr Chavan said. The regional branch of the commission is in Belgaum.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW