More than 61 organizations have applied for permission to organize the protests. (file)
Belagavi, Karnataka:
Amid simmering tensions on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border, where massive protests have been planned today for the final winter session of the BS Bommai government in Karnataka, the leaders of the Congress Party and Shiv Sena were arrested and placed in a preventive detention center. NCP’s Hasan Mushrif, and Shiv Sena’s Kolhapur district chairman, Vijay Devane, were detained today while trying to enter Karnataka’s Belagavi, the center of a decades-old border dispute where the session is being held. the 10-day winter meeting of the Karnataka Council. This will be the state’s last winter session before voting next year.
More than 300 members of the Shiv Sena, Parliament and NCP were stopped at the border and sent back by Karnataka, some in custody by Maharashtra police.
Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MMES) activists, an organization that has been raising the issue for more than five decades, have been planning large protests ahead of the winter session of the Karnataka Council.
Maharashtra Parliament Speaker Nana Patole has blamed the dispute on the Centre, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “dividing” India.
“The border issue is happening because of the central government. Prime Minister Modi wants to divide Maharashtra. Despite the meeting between the two ministers and the interior minister Amit Shah, why the leaders are not allowed to go there. This shows that the central government is behind this problem,” he said.
The Ministers of Karnataka and Maharashtra agreed not to bring their claim in the decades-old state border dispute until the Supreme Court made a request on the matter, the Union Home Secretary Amit Shah said last week after meeting with the two leaders.
However, Maharashtra Minister CM Eknath Shinde today said the matter is “the pride of Maharashtra” and the state has taken a strong stance on the matter.
“The Home Secretary himself has informed the media on this matter. Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti is protesting today, there should not be any politics on this. There are some other issues that we have. can do politics,” he said.
Mr Shinde said he had information from the police about villagers who wanted to join Karnataka and “who was behind them”.
“We are with our people and will give anything that is asked. We even told BS Bommai that whatever you are tweeting is not true, he said it is not a resource. his Twitter account,” Eknath Shinde said.
Maharashtra was upset about the inclusion of Marathi-speaking regions – including Belgavi, part of the former President of Bombay – into Karnataka during the reorganization of the countries along the linguistic line. It also claims 814 Marathi-speaking villages that are now part of Karnataka.
Karnataka asserts that boundaries are final and unchangeable.
First-time Maharashtra MP Dhairyasheel Sambhajirao Mane, who has been appointed head of the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute expert committee, is expected to visit Belagavi today, although the district government has banned him from entering. .
“If Maharashtra MP’s arrival in Karnataka threatens law and order, we will take action. He is not allowed to enter Belagavi. He will be stopped at the border and sent back,” the director-general added. Police, Law & Order supplement, Alok Kumar, said.
Dhairyasheel Sambhajirao Mane was scheduled to attend the event organized by MMES, but police said there was a possibility that he would make inflammatory speeches, leading to language conflicts and creating legal problems and order, ultimately leading to damage to the public. nature.
More than 61 organizations have applied for permission to hold protests during the session of the National Assembly, forcing the massive deployment of police at the scene.
More than 4,000 police officers including six Police Directors, 11 Additional Directors, 43 Deputy Directors, 95 police inspectors and 241 police sub-inspectors have been deployed in Belagavi.
In the past weeks, trucks from Maharashtra have been attacked in Karnataka and buses from the southern state have been smeared by workers from Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray faction.
