All-party delegation on border issue

Bangalore, Apr 18: Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly N Dharam Singh today urged Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to take an all-party delegation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the Belgaum border issue.

Speaking to newspersons here, he said the issue was sensitive in nature and no one should try to politicise it. Referring to the discussion in the Maharashtra Assembly on the border issue and subsequent decision to take a delegation to the Prime Minister, he wondered why Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh had yielded to the pressure tactics of the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi.

Mr Singh asserted that Belgaum belonged to Karnataka and the Mahajan Commission report was binding on all. The Centre too had made it amply clear in the Lok Sabha.

On violence following the demise of Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar in which eight people were killed, he demanded the Chief Minister, who had said he knew ''certain things'', to come out with the truth so that those responsible for the violence could be arrested and dealt with severely. The Government should have anticipated such developments, keeping in view the sensitivity attached to the issue.

While the erstwhile Congress Government felicitated the thespian for his yeoman service to the Kannada film industry spanning five decades, the present Government showed disrespect to the departed soul, he ridiculed.

Mr Singh said the administration had come to a standstill for three months and no major decision was taken. The Government might face trouble once the Cabinet expansion was completed, he added.

He took exception to Janata Dal (Secular) President H D Deve Gowda's remarks that his party would maintain equidistance from both the Congress and BJP and said there was no clarity in his views.

UNI

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