The Belagavi District Kannada Organisations Action Committee has set June 15 as the deadline for the State government to reconstitute the Karnataka Maharashtra Border Dispute Special Legal Advisory Committee with the former Chief Justice of the High Court of Kerala V.S. Malimath as its chairman.
Committee office-bearers said here on Sunday that they would organise a satyagraha in Bengaluru with the support of religious mutts in the district and pro-Kannada and social organisations if the government did not concede their demand.
Main demands
The committee said their demands were reconstitution of the advisory committee under Mr. Malimath, setting up a high-level committee under H.K. Patil, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, and representation for prominent Kannada leaders from Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Vijayapura and Kalburgi districts in both the committees. The committee unanimously endorsed the views of Mr. Malimath that the 10-year-old suit of Maharashtra before the Supreme Court was not maintainable in a court of law as it was a prerogative of Parliament to resolve such matters pertaining to territorial disputes.
Mr. Malimath, saying “now or never” had also said that the Karnataka government must take a strong stand before the apex court to ensure that the latter did not take any decision on the suit, as it would be “irreversible”.
The committee members alleged that Small Scale Industries Minister and district in-charge Satish L. Jarkiholi, legislators and members of Parliament from the district were being insensitive to the boundary dispute. “If our district in-charge Minister, MLAs, MLCs and MPs choose to remain in slumber and failed to respond at least now, we will be forced to give a call for boycott of all their public functions in the district after June 15,” said committee president Ashok Chandargi.
Meeting on June 14
Meanwhile, Sri Siddharam Swami of Nagnur Rudrakshi Mutt has convened a meeting of heads of religious mutts in the district to discuss the boundary dispute in Belagavi city on June 14.
Pro-Kannada outfits seek appointment of V.S. Malimath as its chairman
