Dharna demanding resolution of Mah-K'taka boundary

Mumbai, Apr 14: The Sanyukta Maharashtra Seema Samiti and Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti will hold a day long dharna of all political parties here on Monday to demand early settlement of the long pending Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute.

Prominent among those who will attend the dharna are Mr N D Patil (PWP), Mr Gopinath Munde (BJP), Mr Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena), Mr Ratnakar Mahajan (NCP), Mr Ulhas Pawar (Congress), Mr Sharad Patil (JD-S), a release said.

President Of the Sakhar Kamgar Sangh B R Patil and general secretary R B Shinde, president of government employees union R G Karnik, CPM member Ajit Abhyankar, Hind Mazdoor Kisan's Shankar Salvi, panchayat, trade union leader Sharad Rao, and editor of Belgaum Tarun Bharat newspaper Kiran Thakur will also be present at the dharna.

The release said the Centre had not taken any steps to resolve the matter in the last 50 years. Maharashtra Government moved the Supreme Court for early settlement and despite the apex court's notice last August to the Centre, asking it to respond to the petition in four weeks, the Centre irgnored to do so, it said.

The release also said that the ''harassment of Marathi speaking people'' in Karnataka continues unabated. ''The Karnataka government dissolved the Belgaum municipal body, the mayor was beaten up in Bangalore and his face blackened, a move aimed to expel all members of Marathi Ekikaran Samiti representatives in the panchayat samiti in Belgaum'', it said.

The release demanded that all legislators, MPs and all party leaders from Maharashtra should hold a dharna in New Delhi to pressurise the Centre to take steps to resolve the issue and file its reply to the Supreme Court at the earliest.

The statement said that a resolution to this effect was passed on the 17th death anniversary of the president Sanyukta Maharashtra Seema Samiti, late S M Joshi in Pune earlier this month.

UNI