Border dispute: Maha ministers to visit Karnataka on Dec 3

Days after Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai suddenly staked claim to certain additional border villages, two senior Maharashtra ministers will visit the neighbouring state for talks with activists to resolve the decades-old boundary dispute.

Border dispute: Maha ministers to visit Karnataka on Dec 3
Source: IANS

Mumbai, Nov 28 (IANS) Days after Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai suddenly staked claim to certain additional border villages, two senior Maharashtra ministers will visit the neighbouring state for talks with activists to resolve the decades-old boundary dispute.

Bharatiya Janata Party's Higher & Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil and Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena's State Excise Minister Shambhuraj Desai would hold discussions with the Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MMES) leaders to work out a solution.

"There was a request from the MMES leaders to visit Belgaum and hold talks with thema Let's meet. A solution will definitely be worked out with discussions," said Patil in a tweet.

Incidentally, both Patil and Desai are part of the newly revamped high power committee to resolve the age-old boundary dispute plaguing the two states, and were later nominated as the government's coordinators for the legal team handling the court cases on the sensitive issue.

At its meeting last week, the high power committee had announced certain special initiatives and concessions for the people in the border areas, after which CM Bommai staked claim to more villages in the border areas, sparking a political furore here.

Under fire from all the main Opposition parties, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis attempted to assuage passions by assuring that not a single village from Maharashtra will go to Karnataka.