Stone pelted on vehicles bearing Maharashtra number plate in Belgavi, 6 trucks damaged

Pro-Kannada activists pelted stones at a lorry with a Maharashtra number plate in the border district of Belagavi on Tuesday, December 6. The lorry was travelling from Pune to Bengaluru. The window panes and the front glass of the lorry were shattered and destroyed due to the stone pelting. Belagavi is at its centre as Maharashtra has been claiming that this Marathi-majority area was wrongly given to Kannada-majority Karnataka in the language-based reorganisation of states in the 1960s. Karnataka recently renewed its claim over some villages in Maharashtra, igniting a fresh round of acrimony even as both states have the same party, the BJP, in power.

At the protest today, windshield of at least one truck was damaged as scores of protesters carrying the traditional Kannada/Karnataka flag blocked traffic. Police were deployed to calm the situation, but the protesters were seen jostling with cops and laying down on the road. A team of Maharashtra ministers, including Chandrakant (Dada) Patil and Shambhuraj Desai, and MP Dhairyasheel Mane, had announced they would visit Belagavi on Tuesday, to hold meetings with MES leaders and visit houses of those the MES considers martyrs for Maharashtra.Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the visit at this juncture was inappropriate. Deputy commissioner and district magistrate Nitesh Patil has issued prohibitory orders under article 144 of CrPC barring the three committee members from entering Belagavi district.