The central committee of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti headed by Vasantrao P. Patil has threatened to launch an agitation if the district administration did not implement the provisions of the Linguistic Minorities Act and issue notices, circulars, orders and other information in Marathi language at least in Belagavi, Khanapur and Chikkodi taluks, within a month.
The MES will stage a protest carrying black flags on November 1 on the occasion of the Karnataka Rajyotsava Day celebration to oppose the merger of areas dominated by Marathi-speaking communities in boundary areas with Karnataka.
Mr. Patil, who led a delegation consisting of Sambhaji Patil, Arvind Patil, MLAs, the former MLA Manohar Kinekar, and senior leaders Malojirao Ashtekar and Deepak Dalvi, submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner N. Jayaram in support of their demands.
Court orders
He said that despite High Court orders, the district administration was not implementing the provisions of the Act and issuing orders, circulars, notifications, record of rights and other documents in Marathi in areas where the population of Marathi-speaking people was more than 15 per cent.
The MES had been demanding that the district administration implement the provisions of the Act in Belagavi, Chikkodi and Khanapur taluks, considering the domination of Marathi-speaking people there, but in vain.
On the contrary, though the boundary dispute on the question of transfer of Marathi- dominated towns and villages to Maharashtra, including Belagavi, Khanapur and Nipani in Belagavi district was yet to be adjudicated by the Supreme Court, the State government was adopting coercive methods to impose Kannada on Marathi linguistic communities in these areas, they alleged.
The government was also failing to protect the linguistic minority in violation of its own commitment made at the all-India Chief Ministers’ conference in 1956, they added.
