The Hindu : `Don't compromise on border row'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 13, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

`Don't compromise on border row'

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE NOV. 12. The Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha leader, Vatal Nagaraj, said on Tuesday that the State Government should not compromise one bit on the implementation of the Mahajan Commission report. The report should be treated as the final settlement of the dispute with Maharashtra on the inter-State boundary.

Mr. Nagaraj, who presided over a meeting convened by the Karnataka Gadinada Hitarakshana Samithi here, urged the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, to convene an emergency session of the Legislature to spell out the Government's strategy on the border issue. He appealed to the MPs and Union ministers from the State to pressure the Vajpayee government to settle the dispute soon.

Mr. Nagaraj criticised the decision of an all-party committee in Maharashtra, headed by the Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, to take the three-decade-old boundary dispute with Karnataka to the Supreme Court.

It was Maharashtra which demanded the setting up of the Mahajan Commission when V.P Nayak was the Chief Minister of that State and Y.B Chavan was the Home Minister in the Indira Gandhi government at the Centre.

All previous governments in Maharashtra had accepted the Mahajan Commission report. Now, all of a sudden, Mr. Deshmukh had raised the issue.

If Maharashtra wanted to settle the border row through legal means, then Karnataka should not hesitate to approach the Supreme Court to resolve the dispute over Kasargod with Kerala, Mr. Nagaraj said. The former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Ramesh Kumar, said Maharashtra and Karnataka should accept the report in toto. He opposed the neighbouring State's move to take the matter to the apex court.

The President of the JD(U) State unit, Byre Gowda, supported Mr. Nagaraj's views on the issue and said his party was committed to protecting the State's interests. The Supreme Court had no power to resolve the border dispute, he said.

Pramila Nesargi, advocate, said the Government should prepare its strategy in advance.

The former MLA, G. Narayan Kumar, urged Mr. Krishna to discuss the matter with the Opposition parties. The Chief Minister could have raised the issue at the Congress chief ministers' meet at Mt. Abu, he said.

The former President of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat, Basavaradhya, and the AITUC leader, H.V. Anantha Subbarao, spoke.

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