Karnataka - Belgaum   

Border issue dominates inaugural of sammelan

A start: Madhu Mangesh Karnik, founder of Konkan Marathi Sahitya Parishat inaugurating the two-day 12th Konkan Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Belgaum on Saturday.

Belgaum: Bhalchandra Mungekar, the former Vice-Chancellor and member of the Planning Commission at New Delhi, has appealed to the Karnataka Government not to make the border dispute a “prestige issue”.

Mr. Mungekar, who was unanimously elected as president of the two-day 12th Konkan Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, was delivering presidential remarks at the inaugural function here on Saturday.

He said the Karnataka Government should not make the border dispute a matter of prestige. Considering the long drawn struggle and aspirations of the people (Marathi speaking linguistic community) in the border areas, the Government should avoid contesting the matter in the court but allow smooth transfer of the areas in the question to Maharashtra. However, he did not elaborate the matter further.

Mr. Mungekar, who is regarded as one of the leading development economists of the country, later drew attention towards socio-economic and political imbalances in different states and stressed on the need for fair treatment of the deprived sections of society.

The sammelan has been jointly organised by the Konkan Marathi Sahitya Parishat (KMSP) and city based Sri Saraswati Vachanalay.

The venue of the conference has been named after the noted poetess from the city, late Indira Sant. However, the two-day event evoked a lukewarm response.

Konkan Marathi Sahitya Parishat president Bhaskarrao Shetye, who spoke on Marathi literary traditions in the Konkan belt, comprising parts of Belgaum Karwar in Karnataka, Goa and South Western parts of Maharashtra, observed that legally Belgaum belonged to Maharashtra and should have been part of Samyukt Maharashtra long ago. He appealed to the people fighting for ‘justice’ to urge the Centre to use its good offices for an early solution to the long drawn border dispute over certain areas, including Belgaum, Karwar and Nippani.

KMSP founder Madhu Mangesh Karnik observed that the border dispute was on for about 53 years and the solution was yet to be found.

He said Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan accepted his request to inaugurate the event after he convinced the latter on the issues concerning Marathi speaking people living in border areas. But, he could not come to inaugurate the event as he was preoccupied with other work.

Mr. Karnik said it was still possible to find a settlement to the border dispute out of court for which the governments need to exhibit a great deal of political will.

Leader of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), Kiran Thakur, said that he favoured transfer of Belgaum to Maharashtra and called upon writers and poets to take to the streets to get justice to the Marathi speaking people fighting for justice for over five decades.

Earlier in the morning, a “granth dindi” (books taken out in a procession) was taken out in the city.

On the occasion, founder of Sri Saraswati Vachanalay Mo.Ga. Kunthe was felicitated in recognition of his contribution towards spreading of Marathi literature.

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