Boundary row resolution likely in Maha legislature on Tuesday

Nagpur, Dec 26 (IANS) Maharashtra's Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government is likely to table a resolution on the long-pending Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary row before the state legislature here on Tuesday.

The indications came from the ruling alliance even as the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi parties launched a strong attack on the government questioning Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis' "silence" on the prickly issue that has suddenly heated up in the past one month.

Shiv Sena-UBT President and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray spearheaded the attack in the Legislative Council on Monday and slammed the government for keeping mum against the aggressive stance of Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai vis-a-vis the Marathi-speaking people in the border region.

He also emphatically urged the BSS-BJP government to declare the disputed border areas of Belagavi (Belgaum), Karwar, and Nippani as Union Territory till the Supreme Court's final verdict is delivered and said that it was no longer a question of two languages but for the humanity of all the people living in the region for decades and generations.

The ex-CM further demanded that his plea to declare the disputed territories as UT should be mentioned in the resolution slated to come up before the legislature.

Thackeray urged the Legislative Council Deputy Chairperson Dr. Neelam Gorhe to make arrangements to show a 35-minute documentary film "A Case For Justice" produced by the Maharashtra Government almost 50 years ago, to all the MLAs and MLCs.

He also recommended that all the legislators in both houses should read the former Chief Minister A.R. Antulay's response to the retired Chief Justice M. C. Mahajan Commission's Report of 1967.

In the lower house, Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Prithviraj Chavan of Congress, Bhaskar Jadhav of Shiv Sena and other members raised the issue strongly.

Pawar recalled that at the Business Advisory Committee meeting earlier this month, the government had committed to table the resolution in both houses.

However, though a week elapsed since the start of the Winter Session here, it has not yet been brought up, though the Karnataka legislature already passed its resolution last week, he said.

Fadnavis replied that since CM Shinde is in New Delhi on Monday, the resolution is expected to be tabled after his return in the house Tuesday, and pointed out all the members are on the same page on this issue.