Amid the ongoing border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will meet chief ministers of both states to discuss the issue on Wednesday.
The decades-old boundary dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra over Belagavi flared up again when Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that some villages in the border district of Maharashtra wanted to merge with Karnataka.
On Tuesday, the border row between Maharashtra and Karnataka escalated into violence after vehicles from both states were attacked and defaced in Belagavi and Pune, respectively.
Earlier this week, some vehicles from Maharashtra were pelted with stones in the Belagavi area, and in retaliation, the Karnataka state transport buses were smeared with black paint in Maharashtra.
Bommai on Monday said that Shah was going to hold a meeting with both the states amid the border row.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Maha Vikas Aghadi on Friday met the union Home minister in Parliament and sought his intervention in the dispute. The delegation, which was led by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule said that Shah had promised that he would convene a meeting of CMs of both states on December 14.
What is the border dispute all about?
The dispute dates back to the 1960s after the reorganisation of States on linguistic lines based on the State Reorganisation Act, 1956. Since the creation of Maharashtra on May 1, 1960, it had claimed 865 villages including Belagavi (then Belgaum), Carvar and Nipani, should be merged into Maharashtra. However, Karnataka maintained that it was in their territory.
In 1966, the Centre constituted the Mahajan Commission, which was headed by the then SC chief justice Meher Chand Mahajan, at the insistence of Maharashtra. While rejecting Maharashtra’s claim over Belagavi (then Belgaum), the commission recommended 247 villages/places, including Jatt, Akkalkote and Solapur, to be made part of Karnataka. It also declared 264 villages /places, including Nippani, Khanapur and Nandagad, to be made part of Maharashtra.
Maharashtra rejected the commission’s report, while Karnataka accepted it.
Case in Supreme Court since 2004
The Maharashtra-Karnataka border row has been pending in the Supreme Court since 2004. In that year, the Maharashtra government filed a petition in the apex court, staking claim over Marathi-speaking villages in Karnataka, which contested the claim. Meanwhile, Karnataka changed the name of Belgaum to Belagavi and also made it the second capital.