Belgaum: The surprising visit of the Consultative Committee on Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute, headed by senior counsel H.B. Datar, to Belgaum has raised eyebrows in the district.

It is being seen as a panic reaction by the State Government coming in the wake of reports that Supreme Court would take up hearing on the Maharashtra's original suit demanding transfer of Belgaum and other towns in border areas to it on January 22.

But sources denied that the Supreme Court had not fixed a date for hearing on the matter so far.

A senior advocate, who attended the meeting held at Circuit House on Saturday, told The Hindu that there was no need for the committee to make its visit public because it would only alert the Marathi language activists.

The committee could have gone about its job silently through district administration.

Its hurried visit to Belgaum had given room to speculation that the State Government or the committee had not done its job properly while filing the affidavit before the Supreme Court and was now looking for additional information to strengthen its case in the last minute.

At Saturday's meeting attended by a few representatives of Belgaum District Kannada Organisations

Action Committee, the latter decided to write to Chief Minister H.D. Kumarswamy to seek advice from the constitutional experts and former Chief Justices of India, M.N. Venkatachaliah and Rajendra Babu.

Two other members of the committee, S.V. Patil and K.N. Bengeri, were present. The former Mayor Siddangouda Patil, action committee president Ashok Chandargi and senior journalist Raghavendra Joshi presented their views to the committee members.

None of the two Cabinet Ministers and 16 MLAs, five MLCs and two MPs representing the district met the committee members, much to the chagrin of the Kannada activists.

Conspicuous by their absence were the two MLAs Manohar Kinekar (Uchagaon) and Digamber Patil (Khanapur) belonging to Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti.

Not ready to take risk

Sources in Kannada organisations said that no MLA or MP would want to antagonise the Marathi-speaking voters in the district.

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