K'taka Dy CM seeks UT status to Mumbai after Maha CM seeks similar status to border areas

Bengaluru, Jan 27 (PTI) Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister
Laxman Savadi on Wednesday said Mumbai should be made part of
the state and urged the Centre to declare it a Union Territory
until then, as he hit back at Maharashtra Chief Minister
Uddhav Thackeray for raking up the border issue with a similar
demand.
"We condemn the Maharashtra CM's statement. The Mahajan
report is final. We are confident that things will be in our
favour in the Supreme Court too.
The demand of the people of our region is that we have
been part of Mumbai-Karnataka (region), so we too have our
right on Mumbai," Savadi told reporters.
From now on, he said the people would start demanding
that Mumbai should be made part of Karnataka as they too had a
share in it.
"Until it (Mumbai) is made part of Karnataka, I urge the
central government to make it an union territory,"the DCM said
in response to a question on repeated raking up of the border
issue.
"With us now demanding Mumbai, things may get fine," he
said.
Earlier in the day Thackeray had said that areas
dominated by Marathi speaking people on the state's border
with Karnataka should be declared as a Union Territory till
the Supreme Court gives its final verdict on the issue.
Ramesh Jarkiholi,Minister in-charge of Belagavi district,
which borders Maharashtra, said Thackeray had raked up the
border issue to divert public attention from the 'failures' of
his government.
"...Don't give much importance to what he says. Uddhav
Thackeray has failed at all levels. So he is trying to rake up
the emotive border issue and trying to divert public
attention," he said.
Minister for Women and Child Development Shashikala
Jolle, who also hails from the Belagavi district, said
Thackeray has no right to speak about Belagavi.
"We are not sitting quiet here with our hands tied. We
are people of Karnataka...the soil of Kannada has nurtured
us...if the issue is raked up repeatedly, we will give a
befitting reply," she said.
The Minister pointed out that Belagavi is the land where
Kittur Rani Chennamma had led an armed rebellion against the
British for freedom.
Thackeray had on January 17 too said his government is
committed towards incorporating into the state the areas of
Karnataka where Marathi-speaking people are in majority.
Maharashtra claims certain areas, including Belagavi,
Karwar and Nippani which are part of Karnataka, contending the
majority of population in these areas is Marathi-speaking.
On its part, as an assertion that Belagavi is an integral
part of the state, Karnataka has built the Suvarna Vidhana
Soudha, modeled on the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat
in Bengaluru, where the legislature session is held once a
year. PTI KSU APR
ADMINISTRATOR
APR
ADMINISTRATOR

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)