MAHARASTRA – KARNATAKA BORDER DISPUTE

MAHARASTRA – KARNATAKA BORDER DISPUTE

Subject: Polity

Context: Maharashtra has staked claim to over 7,000 sq km area along its border with Karnataka, comprising 814 villages in areas predominantly Marathi-speaking.

Concept:

• Maharashtra has staked claim to over 7,000 sq km area along its border with Karnataka, comprising 814 villages in the districts of Belagavi (Belgaum), Uttara Kannada, Bidar, and Gulbarga, and the towns of Belagavi, Karwar, and Nippani.
• All these areas are predominantly Marathi-speaking, and Maharashtra wants them to be merged with the state.

What is the dispute?

• According to the State Reorganization Act of 1956, Belagavi was handed over to the Mysore state, which was renamed as Karnataka in 1973.
• In 1957, slighted by the implementation of the States Reorganization Act, 1956, Maharashtra demanded readjustment of its border with Karnataka.
• Maharashtra invoked Section 21 (2) (b) of the Act and submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs stating its objection to Marathi- speaking areas being added to Karnataka.
• The central government constituted the Mahajan Committee in 1966 to assess the situation. Representatives from both sides, Maharashtra and the then Mysore state were part of the committee.
• In 1967, the committee recommended that some villages in Karwar, Haliyal and Suparna talukas of Karnataka be given to Maharashtra but left Belagavi with the southern state.
• In 2006, the Supreme Court held that the issue should be resolved through mutual negotiation and that linguistic criterion should not be considered as it may create more practical problems.
• The case is still being heard by the Supreme Court.

The Mahajan Commission report:

• While demarcating borders, the Reorganization of States Commission sought to include talukas with a Kannada-speaking population of more than 50 per cent in Mysore.
• Opponents of the region’s inclusion in Mysore argued, and continue to argue, that Marathi-speakers outnumbered Kannadigas who lived there in 1956.
• In September 1957, the Bombay government echoed their demand and lodged a protest with the Centre, leading to the formation of the Mahajan Commission under former Chief Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan in October 1966.

Recommendations of the Commission:

• The Commission in its report in August 1967 recommended that 264 villages be transferred to Maharashtra (which formed in 1960) and that Belgaum and 247 villages remain with Karnataka.
• Maharashtra rejected the report, calling it biased and illogical, and demanded another review.
• Karnataka welcomed the report, and has ever since continued to press for implementation, although this has not been formally done by the Centre.