Karnataka - Belgaum   

Corporation gets notice

Staff Correspondent

Council only called for resolving dispute: Belgaum Mayor

Belgaum: The State Government has issued a show-cause notice to the Belgaum City Corporation asking why the council should not be dissolved for adopting an illegal resolution supporting the demand for the transfer of Belgaum to Maharashtra.

R. Satyanarayanrao, Under-Secretary, Department of Urban Development, issued the notice under sections 98 and 99 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976. The notice, dated November 10 and addressed to the corporation Commissioner, was received by him here on Tuesday afternoon. The Government has given the corporation 15 days to reply to the notice.

The corporation council adopted the controversial resolution on October 27, which sparked instant protests by pro-Kannada organisations in the district. The Belgaum District Kannada Organisations Action Committee submitted a memorandum to the Government to supersede the corporation council, as the resolution was illegal and amounted to contempt of court since the matter was before the Supreme Court.

Attack in Bangalore

Last Friday Kannada Rakshana Vedike activists manhandled Belgaum Mayor Vijay Pandurang More, the former Mayor Shivaji Sunthakar and the former MLA B.I. Patil, all members of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) at the Legislators' Home in Bangalore. The MES observed a bandh in Belgaum and Nippani on Saturday.

Reacting to the notice, Mr. More said the council had only urged the Government to resolve the boundary dispute involving the demand for the transfer of Belgaum to Maharashtra. Therefore, the question of withdrawing the resolution does not arise.

`Can be superseded'

Staff Reporter writes from Bangalore:

Law Minister H.K. Patil told presspersons here on Tuesday that the Government has powers to supersede any local body, including municipal corporations, if they adopt a resolution that is against the interests of the people of the State.

Seen in that light, the Government can supersede the Belgaum corporation controlled by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, he said.

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