By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Dec 15:
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday advised the chief ministers of Karnataka and Maharashtra, to maintain status quo on border row between both the states, till conclusion of petition pending in the Supreme Court (SC).
Shah held a joint meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai at Parliament House in New Delhi for about 25 minutes.
Shah directed that a co-ordination panel comprising three ministers from both sides be set up to avoid untoward incidents. This panel should regularly hold meetings to avoid any flare up from both sides.
In the meeting, the issue of a provocative message tweeted by Bommai saying that the Maharashtra will not receive even an inch of Karnataka land also figured. However Bommai claimed that his tweeter account was hacked and he had not tweeted any such message.
Bommai, in one of his public meetings, had staked claim over 40 odd villages in Sangli and Solapur districts of Maharashtra. Besides, the Karnataka also recently released water from Bableshwar dam into Tikondi lake located in Jat taluka of Sangli without any requisition from the Maharashtra. In addition when two Maharashtra Ministers wanted to visit bordering Belgaum, they were denied permission under the pretext of law and order,
After the meeting Shah told media that “Both states have agreed to form a committee headed by one senior IPS officer regarding this matter so that constitutional norms are followed and law and order is maintained in both states so that outsiders and locals don’t face any problem.”
“Some fake Twitter accounts were opened in names of political leaders (of both states) to spread misinformation about the matter. FIRs will be registered against such Twitter accounts and people involved will be exposed in public,” Shah added.
I urge opposition parties Maharashtra & Karnataka not to politicise this issue. We should wait for outcome of the discussions of the committee formed to resolve this issue and decision of Supreme Court. I am confident that NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena( Uddhav Thackeray group), will cooperate,” Shah said.
Fadnavis told media that the meeting was held in cordial atmosphere and both sides agreed to maintain status quo till such time the issue is resolved by the SC. Maharashtra has not diluted its position and the matter will be contested in the court with full vigour, he added.
In response to Bommai’s purported statements, earlier Fadnavis had stated that Belgaum, Karwar, Nippani, Bidar and other areas at present in Karnataka will be annexed to Maharashtra at any cost since these are a majority Marathi-speaking areas.
However Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut told media in Mumbai, that if Bommai is claiming that his official twitter account was hacked, then he should explain about the video of his public meeting in which he repeatedly said that the Maharashtra will not be given an inch of land from Karnataka.
