BELAGAVI: In response to Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis’ statement on Wednesday that not a single village/town from Maharashtra will be merged with Karnataka, CM Basavaraj Bommai hit out at the former in his series of tweets. “Fadnavis issued provocative statements with regard to the boundary dispute between both the states. Fadnavis’ dreams will never come true. The Karnataka state is committed to protecting its land water and borders,” Bommai tweeted.
The issue of boundary dispute between both the states took a serious turn when the Maharashtra government moved the Supreme Court demanding the merger of several areas of Karnataka with Maharashtra in 2004. With the case slated for hearing this month, both the governments are involved in issuing statements on the dispute for the past few days.
What enraged Bommai on Wednesday was a tweet by Fadnavis in which the latter said, “Not even a single village/town from Maharashtra will go to Karnataka. The Maharashtra government will fight strongly in the Supreme Court to claim Belagavi, Karwar, Nippani and other Marathi areas on the border.’’
In his hard-hitting response, Bommai tweeted, “There is no question of Karnataka giving an inch of its land to anybody. Our demand has been to include the Kannada-majority areas of Maharashtra like Akkalkot and Solapur to Karnataka.’’
SIDDU TELLS CM TO FORM ALL-PARTY PANEL
BENGALURU: Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to constitute an advisory committee comprising leaders of opposition parties to strengthen the state’s case in the border dispute with Maharashtra. The former CM said a senior minister should be assigned the responsibility of supervising all developments related to the border dispute. In a letter to CM Bommai, Siddaramaiah expressed concern over the state government not taking adequate measures to counter the Maharashtra government, which has formed a 16-member committee of opposition leaders, and also appointed two ministers to monitor the developments.