Maharashtra parties slam centrral government’s stand on boundary row

MUMBAI - Political parties in Maharashtra Wednesday flayed a central government affidavit in the Supreme Court that said the Marathi-speaking areas bordering Maharashtra and Karnataka belonged to the latter.

In a sharp reaction, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said the decision was “unfair” to the people of Maharashtra.

Thackeray said it was an insult to the sacrifices of martyrs who laid down their lives for the cause of Marathi-speaking people.

In a statement, Thackeray - who was also imprisoned during the boundary struggle in the 1960s - questioned the central government’s contention that language was not the sole criterion for including 814 villages, where a majority speak Marathi, in Karnataka.

“If this is the case, then why not abolish this policy of carving out states on linguistic basis?” he asked.

The central government’s reply came after an affidavit filed by Maharashtra in 2004 staking claim to 814 villages in Belgaum, Gulbarga, Karwar and Bidar districts of Karnataka.

Thackeray added that the central government carried out this “injustice on Maharashtra as the Congress leaders of the state were incapable of doing anything about the six-decade old boundary dispute”.

“Why is the centre indulging in politics over caste-based census?” Thackeray asked, saying that more than Karnataka, it is the central government which was responsible for the atrocities on Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the central government’s stand on the issue as the ruling Congress-led Democratic Front Government’s “gift” to the people of Maharashtra in its golden jubilee year.

Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) leaders T.K. Patil, Kiran Thakur and N.D. Patil denounced the central government. “This is an unfortunate decision by the centre,” Thakur said.

In its affidavit, the central government told the apex court that just because most people in the border district speak Marathi was not ground enough for the areas to be appended to Maharashtra.

The affidavit contended that though the language of the people has been one of the criteria, it was not the sole criterion for inclusion of any area into a state.

“Both parliament and the union government had looked into all relevant factors while considering the State Reorganisation Bill, 1956, and the Bombay Reorganisation Bill, 1960,” the government said in the affidavit.

The central government even urged that Maharashtra’s petition be dismissed and exemplary costs be imposed for filing such a suit.