Karnataka border row to come up in Maharashtra assembly session on Monday

The Karnataka-Maharashtra border row is set to come up in the winter session of the Maharashtra assembly, which starts Monday. Devendra Fadnavis, the state’s deputy minister, on Saturday said that a proposal in this regard will be passed in the assembly. Ever since states were reorganised in the 1950s, Maharashtra has had a long-standing demand for 814 villages along its border and Belagavi city — areas in Karnataka that have a large Marathi-speaking population — to be included in its territory. While the dispute is in the apex court, it flared up due to the Maharashtra government’s decisions and comments made by Karnataka CM Bommai.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who held a meeting on the border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka, has asked both the states to form a six-member team with ministers from both states to address boundary issues. The Home Minister also said that they will wait for the Supreme Court and committee's decision and asked the opposition not to politicise the issue.  "Both states have agreed to form a committee headed by one senior IPS officer regarding this matter so that constitutional norms are followed and law and order is maintained in both states so that outsiders and locals don't face any problem," Amit Shah said.