Belgaum: The Belgaum District Kannada Organisations' Action Committee has opposed Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy's remark on splitting Belgaum district and urged him to refrain from such a move till the Mahajan Commission report is implemented.

A resolution in this regard was adopted at an emergency meeting of the committee here on Tuesday. The meeting was presided over by committee president Ashok Chandargi. A copy of the resolution was faxed to the Chief Minister's office.

The reason for the resolution was Mr. Kumaraswamy's remark during the videoconference on Sunday. Mr. Chandargi said the move by the J.H. Patel Government to split Belgaum into three districts in 1997 led to a month-long agitation in Belgaum, Khanapur, Bailhongal, Saundatti and Ramdurg.

He said former Chief Minister S. Nijalingappa, who was then in New Delhi, had warned the J.H. Patel Government against dividing Belgaum for historical and political reasons.

Hence, the J.H. Patel Government dropped its move to split Belgaum and went ahead with the creation of other new districts.

Members of the committee said splitting of larger districts for administrative convenience was welcome, but several issues were involved when it came to Belgaum where the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi continued with its demand to transfer parts of the district to Maharashtra.

Mr. Chandargi said the Chief Minister should be "cautious" while making any remark on splitting or altering the boundaries of the district in view of a case on the boundary dispute involving Belgaum was before the Supreme Court.

Any move to split the district at this juncture would give scope for the revival of the 1997 agitation by Kannadigas. The meeting observed that the Deputy Commissioner and administrator of the Belgaum City Corporation (BCC) Shalini Rajneesh "on behalf of the Government" gave false assurance to display Kannada flag along with the tricolour and saffron flags on the premises of the corporation in April for the sake of publicity. She promised to ensure that all name boards were in Kannada last year but did not fulfil it. Therefore, the Government should display the Kannada flag at the earliest.

Kannada meet

The meeting observed that there was "uncertainty" on holding the proposed International Kannada meet in Belgaum as there was no communication to Kannada organisations in the district.

Even the MPs and MLAs from the district were not aware of the proposed event.

The committee thanked Belgaum Urban Development Authority Commissioner D.B. Nayak for "gifting" land valued at Rs. 2 crore to establish Kannada-medium schools in parts of the city.

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