Maha must set up welfare office in Belgaum in Ktaka: Raut
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut onSunday said the Uddhav Thackeray government must set up anoffice in Belgaum, a district in Karnataka which Maharashtraclaims is Marathi-speaking and therefore must be merged withthe state.
In his weekly column Rokthok in Sena mouthpieceSaamana, Raut said the office would be for the welfare ofthe Marathi-speaking population of the area, adding thatEknath Shinde, who is Maharashtra coordination minister forborder areas, should make frequent visits there.
He said Chandrakant Patil, who was coordinationminister in the previous Devendra Fadnavis regime, nevervisited the disputed border areas, and when he did causedconfusion with some of his statements.
He said the Maharashtra government should strengthenits stand against Karnataka in the boundary dispute casepending in the Supreme Court, and the state advocate generalshould meet Marathi-speaking people in the border areas andupdate them about the case.
He said the Maharashtra government had decided toprovide grants to educational and cultural institutions inBelgaum and other disputed border areas, and it was mandatorythat the institutions be registered, but “the problem is theKarnataka government doesnt allow any organisation bearingMarathi or Maharashtra in its name to be registered”.
He said when Marathi-speaking people are attacked inBelgaum, Shiv Sainiks retaliate by vandalising transport busesbelonging to Karnataka coming into Maharashtra.
The Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP went to warn that if suchan incident happened in Mumbai, then it would be “difficultfor Kannadigas here to conduct their trade and business”, butthen added that “no one should go to that level”.
Raut said the Karnataka government must not considerMarathi speaking people in Belgaum as enemies and should grantthem rights enshrined in the Constitution.
The Linguistic Minorities department, functional inBelgaum for several years, has been shifted to Chennai, andthis was done deliberately to insult Marathi-speaking people,Raut alleged.
Raut also criticised senior BJP leader and former CMDevendra Fadnavis for campaigning against Maharashtra EkikaranSamiti candidate Shubham Shelke in the Belgaum Lok Sabhabypoll held on April 17.
The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Unionminister and BJP leader Suresh Angadi from COVID-19 last year.
Fadnavis should have avoided going to Belgaum asShelke symbolises the “unity among Marathi-speaking peoplethere”, Raut claimed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)