CM gives M'rashtra strong reply on Belgaum

Joining issue with Maharashtra on the boundary dispute, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today asserted that Belgaum belongs to

Karnataka and said that the government did not require permission from the neighbouring state to do what it wanted there.

“Belgaum belongs to us and we need not seek the neighbouring state's permission to do whatever we want to do there. It is left to me and my government what we want to do there. Should we get their (Maharashtra's) permission for it?”, he said.

Maharashtra leaders remarks are “unwarranted and uncalled for”, he told reporters here. Yeddyurappa's recent statement that his government proposed to declare Belgaum as Karnataka's second capital was flayed by Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena leaders in Maharashtra on April 13.

His Maharashtra counterpart Ashok Chavan had charged him with “speaking out of turn” on the issue. Stating that the issue has already been settled by the Mahajan Commission, Yeddyurappa said its recommendations “are final”. Maharashtra's act of repeatedly raking up the issue “is an exercise in futility”, he added.

Karnataka is constructing the Suvarna Soudha, a second secretariat, in Belgaum, which includes bi-cameral legislature halls to hold the annual winter sessions. Recently, a person of Kannadiga origin was elected as Mayor of Belgaum City Corporation.