Maharashtra BJP opposes Union Territory status demand for Belgaum

State BJP today said it was opposed to the Union Territory status demand for 865 villages, including Belgaum city in Karnataka, till the Supreme Court gives its verdict on the long pending border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Union Territory status means Central rule and since the Central government's stand over the years has always been pro-Karnataka, the demand for Union Territory will not serve
any purpose, leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly
Eknath Khadse told reporters here.

"The present law minister is a Kannadiga Veerappa Moily. It is like handing over the entire disputed region to the Centre which is not sympathetic to Maharashtra," he said.

Maharashtra BJP demands that the 865 villages including Belgaum city be transferred to the State without any pre-conditions, he said.

Khadse denied reports that the demand for Union Territory
status for the disputed areas was not included during the
meeting with prime minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi yesterday,
since the BJP and he specifically opposed it.

It was a unanimous decision to stick to the resolution passed in the Legislative Assembly that the prime minister intervene to stop atrocities against Marathi speaking people, demand a human rights probe into the police atrocities and the Centre remain neutral in the dispute, he said.

"Chief minister, deputy chief minister and all leaders from different parties who had gone to Delhi yesterday did not
mention the demand for Union Territory status. It was decided
to stick to the Legislative Assembly resolution," Khadse said.

Everybody present during the all-party meeting with the prime minister spoke unanimously in one voice, Khadse said.
   
He said he had spoken to Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa to express the state BJP's resentment over the
police lathicharge on Marathi speaking people in Belgaum.

"It is not that the atrocities started with the BJP government. Such incidents have been happening in Belgaum even when the Congress was in power," he said.

The BJP leader dared the Congress to ask its Karnataka unit to support the Marathi speaking people of Belgaum. 

"Just like we are all united on the border row, all political parties in Karnataka are vehemently against giving the 865 villages to us," he said. 

Earlier, speaking in the Legislative Assembly, he described as "baseless" reports in a section of the media that the BJP and especially himself had opposed the demand during the meeting with prime minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi yesterday.

He demanded that chief minister Ashok Chavan clarify on
the floor of House and remove misunderstanding among the
people of the state on this issue.

"When I raised the issue in the morning, the government said that chief minister will make a statement on the meeting with prime minister in the House today," Khadse said at the fag end of the day's proceedings.

Revenue minister Narayan Rane informed the House that the
chief minister had to leave the cabinet meeting mid-way, since
his mother-in-law passed away.

"He is unable to be present in the House today. The statement will be made tomorrow," Rane said.

The border row had figured in both Houses of the state legislature earlier this week.

Replying to a debate in the legislative council on the issue on Tuesday, Chavan had said he would demand Union Territory status for Belgaum and other disputed villages, till the apex court gives its verdict, during the meeting with the prime minister.

In the legislative assembly later in the day, he said, Karnataka was renaming the disputed villages including Belgaum
to Belgavi and also constructing Vidhan Sabha building for
holding Assembly Sessions in Belgaum.

He said he would ask the Centre to ask Karnataka to maintain status quo in the 865 villages claimed by Maharashtra till the Supreme court decision.

The Lower House adopted a unanimous resolution expressing
displeasure over the Centre's affidavit which said that language was not the sole criteria of reorganisation of states and that the Maharashtra government's amendment application to the main petition be dismissed with a cost.

The resolution also asked the Centre to intervene to stop atrocities against Marathi speaking people in the disputed
villages and to maintain a neutral stand in the dispute.