In line with the promise made by it after assuming office in the State, the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government on Saturday appointed a co-ordination committee, headed by Sena’s Minister Eknath Shinde and NCP’s Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, to speed up the pending litigation in the Supreme Court over the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute.
The co-ordination committee will soon hold consultations with the lawyers representing the State in the Supreme Court to take stock of the status of the case pending before the apex court, while Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will hold a meeting with senior lawyer Harish Salve in the near future.
In an effort to push matters relating to the pending litigation in the Supreme Court over the Maharashtra-Karnataka border row, Uddhav held a meeting of the Ministers in his Cabinet and some senior MLAs and decided on a plan of action to pursue intensely the pending legal matters relating to the border row.
At the meeting, Uddhav said that he invited the representatives of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), which is spearheading the agitation by Marathi-speaking people in border areas of Karnataka, for the meeting to seek their views on the border issue.
“We need to talk to the MES representatives to make our case strong in the Supreme Court. I also feel that all the political parties should come together to fight the issue,” he said.
At the meeting, senior ministers Eknath Shinde, Subhash Desai ( both Shiv Sena), Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal (both the NCP), Nitin Raut (Congress) and MLAs Hasan Mashrif, Rajesh Patil and Anil Parab.
State Advocate-General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, secretary of General Administration Department Anshu Sinha, senior lawyers and representatives of the MES, including former MLAs Manohar Kinekar, Arvind Patil, Digambar Patil, senior journalist Kiran Thakur and Prakash Digholkar were among others present at the meeting.
Maharashtra has long been staking claim its jurisdiction over 865 villages in Belgaum, Karwar, Bidar and Gulbarga districts in Karnataka.
In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on July 6, 2010, the then Congress-led UPA government had ejected outright Maharashtra’s claim – made in its 2004 affidavit and its application in 2009 — on its jurisdiction over 865 villages in Belgaum, Karwar, Bidar and Gulbarga districts in Karnataka.
The UPA Government had taken a stand that “just because most people in the border districts speak Marathi, it is not ground enough for the areas to be appended to Maharashtra”,
In a resolution adopted unanimously later on July 13, 2010, the Maharashtra Assembly unanimously had urged the then UPA Government to re-consider its affidavit made the apex court seven days earlier, rejecting outright Maharashtra’s claim over 865 villages in Belgaum, Karwar, Bidar and Gulbarga districts in Karnataka.
Simultaneously, the the Congress-led UDF Government on the same day rooted for imposition of a Centrally-administered rule in the Marathi-speaking areas of Karnataka, pending a verdict by the Supreme Court on the ongoing litigation over the border row between the two states.
Later on December 20, 2011, the the Shiv Sena pushed its agenda on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue by submitting a memorandum to the then President Pratibha Patil, urging her to recommend to the Centre to declare Belgaum and neighbouring areas as a “Union Territory”, keeping in view the interests of Marathi-speaking people there.
Since then, there has not been much of a movement on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border case pending before the Supreme Court.
Articulating the new MVA government’s stand on the Maharashtra-Karanataka border issue, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari – in his his address to joint session of both the Houses of Maharashtra Legislature on December 1 — reiterated the State Government’s commitment to “protect” the constitutional rights and privileges of the Marathi speaking people of 865 villages claimed by the state in relation to Maharashtra-Karnataka border.
“My Government will continue to take a firm stand and strive to get justicein the matter pending in the Supreme Court,” the Governor said.