Nagpur : The winter session of the Maharashtra legislature began in Nagpur on Monday and the opposition parties raised the issue of the boundary dispute with Karnataka and condemned the ban imposed on MP Dhairyasheel Mane from entering Belagavi district in the neighbouring state.
Shiv Sena MP Mane was recently appointed the chief of an expert committee formed by the Maharashtra government regarding the writ petition in the Supreme Court on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute. Mane had requested the Belagavi district administration to make arrangements for his visit to the city. However, the district authorities imposed a ban on his entry saying his possible inflammatory speech may create law and order problems.
The dispute relates to Maharashtra's claim on Belagavi and some other border areas in the southern state which have sizable Marathi-speaking population.
Talking to reporters in the Vidhan Bhavan complex here, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajit Pawar said there was meeting of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) on Monday wherein some leaders and other people from Maharashtra were stopped by the Karnataka government.
"Shiv Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane was not allowed to enter Belagavi. We condemn this incident," the Nationalist Congress Party leader said. Pawar demanded the government should collect information on this and inform the House about it. Leader of opposition in Legislative Council Ambadas Danve also condemned the ban on Mane from visiting Belagavi. The MES has been demanding the merger of Belagavi with Maharashtra claiming the district has a substantial Marathi population.
On the Maharashtra government's plan to introduce a bill in the legislature to have a Lokayukta law which will also bring the chief minister and ministers under its ambit, Pawar said it will be studied and there is no reason to protest against it if it is in the interest of the people. Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole referred to the incident of ink attack on Maharashtra minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandrakant Patil at an event in Pune last week over his remarks on social reformers Dr B R Ambedkar and Jyotiba Phule.
Patole took a dim view of action taken against media persons and security personnel present at the event instead of the BJP leader. Patil had said Ambedkar and Phule begged for funds rather than depending on government grants to run educational institutions. PTI
