Maharashtra, Karnataka Chief Ministers and Sharad Pawar should meet over Belgaum dispute: Sanjay Raut

Sanjay Raut also said that both the states should accept ruling of the Supreme Court

Sanjay Raut. File

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said that chief ministers of Maharashtra and Karnataka and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar should meet to resolve demands of Marathi-speaking people of Belgaum and nearby areas.

He also said that both the states should accept ruling of the Supreme Court, where a case over the issue is pending since many years. Maharashtra claims Belgaum, part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency but currently a district of Karnataka, on linguistic grounds.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray last month appointed ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Eknath Shinde as coordinators to oversee his government’s efforts to expedite the case related to the boundary dispute with Karnataka.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday in Belgaum, Mr. Raut said, “The three leaders need to meet to resolve demands of Marathi-speaking people of Belgaum and nearby areas (in Karnakata).”

He also said that the dispute was being heard by the Supreme Court for last 14 years, and both the states should accept the apex court’s verdict.

On Friday, Maharashtra minister of state Rajendra Patil Yadravkar, who is the MLA from Shirol in Kolhapur, went to Belgaum to pay tributes to martyrs of the movement for the merger of Marathi-speaking villages there into Maharashtra.

A gathering is organised every year to honour those who died during the first ‘Samyukta Maharashtra Andolan’ on January 17, 1956.