Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES) leaders, on Tuesday, strongly condemned the Belagavi Zilla Panchayat for neither honouring High Court of Karnataka’s order nor that of the State government to issue all government orders, notifications, circulars and other proceedings in Marathi language.
The MES leaders and workers, led by the former MLA Manohar Kinekar, staged a protest on the panchayat office premises and later submitted a memorandum to the Chief Executive Officer stating that a High Court Bench in Dharwad, headed by Justice L. Narayana Swamy, in Writ Petition No 79953/2013 (LB-RES), ordered that the Government Order of March 31, 2004, be implemented.
Mr. Kinekar, who was one of the three petitioners, filed the writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution praying for a direction to the respondents (Divisional Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Panchayat, Executive Officers of Belagavi and Khanapur Taluk Panchayats, Chief Secretary (RDPR) and Under Secretary to the Government, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms) to issue meeting notices, proceedings, documents and other papers in Marathi language along with Kannada language to the Marathi-speaking elected members of the Zilla Panchayat, Taluk Panchayat and Gram Panchayat and to the Marathi-speaking people residing in Belagavi and Khanapur taluks as per the Government Order of March 31, 2004. Disposing of the case on November 18, 2013, Mr. Narayana Swamy directed the respondents to issue appropriate orders as per the Government Order of March 31, 2004.
Yet, the Zilla Panchayat and the Belagavi Taluk Panchayat were not honouring either the court’s order or that of the government.
Several memoranda had been submitted to both the Zilla Panchayat and Deputy Commissioner of Belagavi since the court disposed of the case but to no avail, Mr. Kinekar said.
He said that Marathi-speaking elected members in the Zilla Panchayat and Belagavi Taluk Panchayat areas, besides those residing in the taluk, were unable to read and understand Kannada language. The MES had been repeatedly requesting that the government order be implemented since 2013 in vain, which shows the authorities contempt to the court and State government orders.
Mr. Kinekar threatened to launch an intensified agitation if the Zilla Panchayat authorities continued to exhibit indifferent attitude towards Marathi linguistic minority people and failed to implement the government order at the earliest.
