Karnataka-Maharashtra border row: Amit Shah meets Bommai, Shinde, decides to wait for SC order

Keeping a positive approach, the chief ministers of Karnataka and Maharashtra agreed that a resolution should be reached in a constitutional manner.

New Delhi, Dec 15: The Chief Minsters of Karnataka and Maharashtra have agreed not to press their claims on the decades-long state border dispute till a resolution to be reached in a constitutional manner, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday.

The decision comes after Amit Shah held a meeting with Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde amid a flare-up of the dispute that dates back to 1956.

"The meeting between Maharashtra and Karnataka on the border issue was held in a positive atmosphere today. Keeping a positive approach, CMs of both states agreed that a resolution should be reached in a constitutional manner," Amit Shah told reporters.

"I urge opposition parties Maharashtra andKarnataka not to politicise this issue. We should wait for outcome of the discussions of the committee formed to resolve this issue and decision of Supreme Court. I'm confident that NCP and Cong Uddhav Thackeray group will cooperate," he added.

"In order to address the issue a committee of 6 ministers, three each from both states will hold detailed talks to resolve the issue," Shah said.

Apart from that in order to ensure Law and at all costs, a committee under a senior IPS official will be formed.

What is the Karnataka-Maharashtra border row?

The dispute between the two states erupted after State Reorganization Act in 1956 came into effect, but it was opposed by Maharashtra which demanded Marathi- speaking border areas including Belagavi (Then Belgaum) be included into Maharashtra.

Belagavi, Vijayapura, Dharwad and Uttara-Kannada were part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, but during the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines, Belagavi and the surrounding villages were included in Mysore Princely state (now Karnataka). Maharashtra claims that the said regions have majority of Marathis.

According to an 1881 census, Belagavi had a population of 864,014 residents. While 556,397 (64.39 per cent) of them were Kannada speakers, 225,008 (26.04 per cent) spoke Marathi. However, the political scene changed by 1940s as Marathi leaders dominated politics and rejected the census report.

After the State Reorganization Act, Maharashtra invoked Section 21 (2) (b) of the Act, and submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs raising its objection to Marathi- speaking areas being integrated to Karnataka. It wanted an area of 2,806 square miles including 814 villages, and three urban settlements of Belagavi, Karwar and Nippani to be part of Maharashtra.

Mahajan Commission Report

As the dispute could not be solved, the Government of India constituted the Mahajan Commission headed by Supreme Court's retired Chief Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan on 25 October 1966. In its report, the one-man commission granted 262 villages in the disputed region to Maharashtra which wanted to integrate 814 villages besides Belgaum, while Karnataka, which had demanded 516 villages, got 247 villages.

The report rejected Maharashtra's claim on Belgaum city.

In 2006, the matter reached the Supreme Court after the Maharashtra government filed a petition in the Supreme Court staking claim over Belgaum city. The state government cited, "feeling of insecurity among the Marathi-speaking people living in Karnataka, in the recent days."

Over the years, there have been numerous protests in the border regions with the politicians raking up the issue every now and then and adding fueling into fire. To consolidate the state's claim on Belgaum, the Karnataka government Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in the city which will be used for a week every year. It was expressly constructed at a cost of Rs 400 crore to counter Maharashtra's claim to the area.