Chavan meets Cong chief over Belgaum
Maharashta chief minister Ashok Chavan is finding it difficult to create an atmosphere in favour of his state at the Centre, on the issue of boundary dispute between Maharashta and Karnataka. While the Congress is distancing itself from this issue, the Union government cannot take any stand on it as the matter is sub judice.
Mr Chavan had earlier led an all-party delegation from Maharashtra which met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on this issue here. It wanted a status quo to be maintained till the judicial pronouncement and urged the PM to protect the linguistic minorities in Belgaum district. Mr Chavan had also appealed to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to send its team to the disputed areas in Karnataka where Marathi-speaking people were being “harassed” by the state government there.
On Saturday, the Maharashta chief minister led the Pradesh Congress delegation to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on the same issue. It apprised her of the situation in the state in the wake of the flaring up of the boundary dispute with Karnataka.
Though Mr Chavan said he was firm on his demand for granting Union Territory status to the 865 villages in Karnataka which have a majority of Marathi-speaking population, a resolution passed by the Maharashtra Assembly ignored his suggestion. Significantly, the CM did not even raise this before the Congress chief.
“The demand for UT status remains. But it was not raised in the discussions with Gandhi,” Mr Chavan said.
The NCP and the Shiv Sena are active in Maharashtra on this issue but the two national parties, Congress and BJP, are lagging behind for obvious reasons. The Shiv Sena had earlier raised this issue in Parliament.
Now, it will be interesting to see whether the Congress, BJP and even the NCP would collectively draw the nation’s attention to the violation of human rights in the disputed areas during the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning on July 26.
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