BELAGAVI/BENGALURU/MUMBAI : The Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute worsened on Tuesday with pro-Kannada and Marathi activists targeting vehicles from each others’ states on either side of the interstate border, even as leaders from both the states took potshots and blamed each other over the situation.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, while describing the situation as “worrisome” and that the time had come “to take a stand”, told reporters in Mumbai, “Maharashtra has taken a stand of observing patience and it is still ready to do that. But even that has a limit. In 24 hours, if the attacks on vehicles are not stopped then this patience will take a different path and the responsibility will be completely on the Karnataka chief minister and the Karnataka government.”
The tension heightened at the interstate border on a day when two Maharashtra ministers, Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai, were supposed to visit Belagavi and hold discussions with pro-Marathi groups. Pro-Kannada organisations, in a show of strength, staged demonstrations in Belagavi against the proposed visit of the ministerial delegation from the neighbouring state. However, the Maharashtra ministers cancelled their visit against which Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had threatened legal action if they did come to Belagavi.
The situation turned tense after a video went viral showing activists of pro-Kannada outfit, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), pelting stones at vehicles entering Karnataka with Maharashtra registration numbers at the toll gate at Hirebagewadi near Belagavi on NH-48.
Karnataka Cong provoking KRV workers’
At least five lorries bearing Maharashtra registration plates were pelted with stones, besides their number plates blackened. KRV activists who targeted five lorries entering the state from Maharashtra were detained and released on Tuesday.
Maharashtra DyCM Devendra Fadnavis said he would wait to see whether action against the people who were involved in attacks on Maharashtra vehicles was taken or not, then decide to apprise Union Home Minister Amit Shah of the situation.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye accused Congress in Karnataka of provoking KRV activists into pelting stones at Maharashtra vehicles.