New Delhi [India], February 23 (ANI): Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has said that the border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka has been pending for a long time and that the Centre should work to expedite the case in the Supreme Court.
“The border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka has been going on since the formation of Maharashtra in 1960. In 2000, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, took the matter to the Supreme Court. This matter has been pending in the Supreme Court for the last 25 years… People of Belagavi are forced to speak Kannada. The Marathi language there is slowly vanishing… We request the central government to get this case heard in the Supreme Court…,” Chavan told ANI.
He said the people of Maharashtra will accept the decision of the court.
His remarks came days after an assault on a KSRTC bus conductor in Belagavi in Karnataka, allegedly for not speaking in Marathi.
Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil has condemned the assault on a KSRTC bus conductor and termed the incident “unfortunate”.
“It is unfortunate that some incidents like these are happening. They have disturbed the society,” Patil said.
He assured people that the Karnataka government would take all necessary measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. “The government of Karnataka will make all efforts to ensure that this type of unnecessary event does not take place,” he said.
A bus driver and conductor of the North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) were allegedly assaulted by a group of youths following a dispute over language in Belagavi.
According to the officials, the incident happened on Friday at around 12:30 pm near Sulebhavi.F our people were arrested following an attack on a bus driver and conductor in Karnataka’s Belagavi.
Police said on Saturday that they received a complaint from the girl’s side also who alleged that the conductor made indecent remarks
A boy and girl who had boarded the semi-urban CBT-Sulebhavi bus had allegedly threatened the conductor as he was not able to speak in Marathi.
They called their accomplices. Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy asserted that the police took swift action in the matter.
“The police took action and the court has sent the accused to 14 days judicial custody. The law will take action. The police have acted swiftly,” Reddy said.
NA Haris, Congress MLA and Chairman of KSRTC, said the government had taken action in the matter.”Every local should try to speak in Kannada. If you don’t know it, then you should not be attacking the person who is asking you to do it. That is not fair.
The government has taken action, and they have been arrested. We will not spare them as it is not acceptable,” Haris said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah should have a meeting with Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis and Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah to prevent a repeat of incidents like that in Belgavi.
“We do not want such incidents to take place. PM and Home Minister should call for a meeting with the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Karnataka. The Belagavi border dispute is in the Supreme Court. Even then how the Karnataka government is doing these activities is not right. The matter is sub-judice. Activities like assaulting our people, closing of Marathi schools and literature organisations why is it going on?”
Following the incident Shiv Sena (UBT) workers on Saturday staged a protest and blackened the buses with Karnataka number plates in the Swargate area of Pune city.
Earlier, police said that action would be taken against those responsible for blackening the buses.
“As soon as we got to know that Shiv Sena (UBT) workers were going to come here and do something, we immediately dispatched force. They were successful in spraying black colour on one bus. Not much damage has been done,” DCP Smartana Patil told ANI.
“The accused have been detained by the police, and legal action will follow… Four to five people have been detained, but others will be identified soon on the basis of video recordings,” she added. (ANI)
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