Uddhav says state govt should ask SC to declare disputed border area as UT

Ex-Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackrey said state government should request Supreme Court that all disputed regions be declared as a UT as long as Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue is pending before it

Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackrey on Tuesday said the state government should request the Supreme Court that all disputed regions be declared as a Union Territory as long as the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue is pending before it.

Speaking to reporters here, Thackeray congratulated the Maharashtra government after both houses of the state legislature passed resolutions on the border dispute. "We will support every measure that is in Maharashtra's interest, he said. Both houses unanimously passed the resolution moved by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde which said the state will "legally pursue" the inclusion in Maharashtra of 865 Marathi-speaking villages which are presently part of Karnataka.

On the Shinde government's announcement that it will implement welfare schemes for the Marathi-speaking people in border areas of the southern state, Thackeray asked whether the Karnataka government, which does not even allow leaders from Maharashtra to enter, would allow this.

When he demanded that disputed areas like Belagavi in Karnataka be declared as UT pending the Supreme Court case, the Maharashtra government said the apex court had rejected this proposal in 2008, Thackeray said. "But the situation now is not what it was in 2008," he added.

Post-2008, the Karnataka government renamed Belgaum as Belagavi and gave it the status of second capital, all of which which defied the SC's 2008 directions, the Shiv Sena leader said.

The Maharashtra government should, therefore, file a fresh writ petition in the SC and demand UT status for the disputed area pending the legal resolution, he said.

State Congress chief Nana Patole, meanwhile, said the Eknath Shinde government failed to respond effectively to the injustice the Marathi-speaking population in Karnataka's border areas was facing. The opposition nonetheless supported the resolution considering the sentiments of this population, he added.