Thaindian News

Mumbai, July 13 (IANS) Alleging “police raj” in the disputed territory on the state’s border with Karnataka, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan Tuesday demanded that all the 865 Marathi-majority villages in the neighbouring state be declared a union territory till the final verdict of the Supreme Court.
Speaking to media persons here this afternoon, Chavan urged the central government to deploy central security forces in Belgaum and other Marathi-dominated areas, and bring them under central rule.

“There should be a status quo till the matter is sub-judice. Presently, we see that there are many developments taking place in those areas (of Karnataka), local elections are being set aside and Marathis are subjected to harassment,” Chavan said.

He charged the Karnataka government with changing the names of the villages in the disputed areas, and discriminating against the Marathi-speaking people.

Chavan is expected lead an all-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi Wednesday and discuss the contentious issue with him.

Earlier this afternoon, the chief minister made a similar statement in legislative assembly and his views were supported by the Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

Accusing the Karnataka police of acting like “goons in khaki uniform”, Thackeray demanded that the centre should consider a special council for the Belgaum on the lines of the Darjeeling Hill Council till the matter is finally sorted out.

The demands by Chavan and Thackeray came even as stray incidents of violence continued for the second day Tuesday with the targeting of buses on both sides of the border.

While Maharashtra suspended all bus services to Karnataka Tuesday and Wednesday, Karnataka countered by suspending services to Maharashtra for the next three days.

Private bus and truck operators of Maharashtra said they would “wait and watch” the developments over the next couple of days before taking a final call on whether to ply their vehicles to Karnataka.

In a related development, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Manikrao Thakre held a meeting with senior party leaders over the issue and later announced that a delegation of state Congress leaders would soon meet party chief Sonia Gandhi and apprise her of the strong sentiments of the people of the state in the matter.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar refused to be dragged into the border row.

“I have nothing to say in the matter. Whatever is there you speak to the chief minister,” he told media persons in Delhi.

The Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary row suddenly came to the limelight following the central government’s affidavit in the Supreme Court last week that the disputed areas could not be made a part of Maharashtra merely because a majority of the population there speak Marathi.

The centre’s affidavit sparked a row in Maharashtra with loud protests by all political parties of the ruling as well as opposition combines.