Deshmukh rakes up border dispute

By S.K. Ramoo

BANGALORE, MAY 30. The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, is making a ``desperate bid'' to reopen the border dispute with Karnataka.

He is reported to have convinced the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, to convene a meeting of the Chief Ministers of the two States in Mumbai, where Mr. Vajpayee is scheduled to undergo a knee surgery next month.

Mr. Deshmukh has apparently been forced to act after the Maharashtra Legislature unanimously adopted a resolution seeking the Prime Minister's intervention to find an amicable settlement to the dispute.

The Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, had earlier reiterated the unanimous resolution of the State Legislature that the problem should be solved within the framework of the Mahajan Commission report. He had spurned the overtures made by Mr. Vajpayee.

At a meeting held here, leaders of political parties had urged him not to attend any conclave on the issue. To the dismay of the Opposition leaders, Mr. Krishna announced last week he would attend the meeting to be called by the Prime Minister. He changed his avowed stand reportedly on account of pressure from his Maharashtra counterpart, who was obliging Karnataka by releasing water from the Ujani dam into the dried-up Bhima river.

Though Mr. Deshmukh had a cordial relationship with Mr. Krishna he did not shy away from reviving the issue. He even threatened that Maharashtra would approach the Supreme Court. In response, Mr. Krishna wondered under what provision of the law Maharashtra would approach the court. The former Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr. Ramakrishna Hegde, told this correspondent from Delhi over telephone that he had cautioned Mr. Krishna not to fall prey to Maharashtra's designs to reopen the issue. He had urged him not to attend any meeting.

Maharashtra politicians have been demanding the transfer of Belgaum to their State. The Sampurna Maharashtra Samithi and the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) had been pressing for the transfer of Belgaum, Nippani, Khanapur, Karwar taluks and parts of Bidar District to Maharashtra. The MES, which once had eight MLAs from Belgaum district, has lost its public influence and support over the years. Not a single MES member was elected to the Assembly in the last elections.

Interestingly, the Shiv Sena has managed to get a toe- hold in the recently-held election to the Belgaum City Corporation. The Marathi group-MES-Shiv Sena combine won a majority of the seats to capture power in the civic body. This is not the first time that the MES had assumed power in the corporation. It had unanimously adopted resolutions in the past seeking transfer of Belgaum to Maharashtra, much to the discomfiture of the Karnataka Government, which had admonished it for its ``political machination''.

The Maharashtra Government, which raised the border dispute shortly after the reorganisation of States, with the then Mysore State, got a resolution adopted in its Legislature urging

the Union Government to constitute a border commission. The State Congress leaders had succeeded in pressuring the Congress Working Committee to pass a resolution urging the Union Government to constitute a commission.

The then AICC General Secretary, Sadiq Ali, suggested that the decision of the commission should be binding on both Mysore and Maharashtra. The then Maharashtra Chief Minister, V.P. Naik, and the then Union Defence Minister, Y.B. Chavan, had publicly stated that Maharashtra would abide by the commission's recommendations.

The Centre appointed a one-man commission, headed by the former Chief Justice of India, Justice Mahajan, on October 25, 1966. Although he submitted the report on August 28, 1967, it was made public only on November 4, 1967.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : Jaswant-Gehlot exchange highlights lack of
           coordination
Next     : CBI files chargesheet in Oriental Bank case