Karnataka - Belgaum   

Marathis are safe here, says Yeddyurappa

BELGAUM: Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Saturday took strong exception to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s remarks that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in the State was heaping atrocities on the Marathi people and said all Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka were safe and were living peacefully with Kannadigas.

“All Marathis and Kannadigas are living like children of one mother in the State. There is unity and integrity among Marathis and Kannadigas,” he told presspersons outside the Legislative Assembly.

In an editorial comment in Sena’s mouthpiece Saamna, Mr. Thackeray has attacked the BJP Government over the boundary row and said Mr. Yeddyurappa was heaping “grave atrocities” on the Marathi people.

“Chief Minister Yeddyurappa was accorded a red carpet treatment when he visited Mumbai. The same Chief Minister is heaping grave atrocities on the Marathi people in Karnataka,” Mr. Thackeray said.

Mr. Yeddyurappa said: “Both Kannada and Marathi-speaking people are united on land and water issues. There are no differences among the people of Karnataka and we are focusing on the implementation of development works.”

Maintaining that Mr. Thackeray remarks were unwarranted when the State legislature session was on in Belgaum, Mr. Yeddyurappa said the district administration had taken a few measures from the security point of view. The district administration had not allowed the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) to hold a Maha Sammelana here on Friday. As a precautionary step, the police had arrested a few MES leaders.

The MES, which is seeking the merger of 856 villages and towns of Karnataka with Maharashtra, has been opposing the legislature session in Belgaum.

A special session of the State legislature held from September 25 to 29, 2006, during the Kumaraswamy-led coalition government adopted a unanimous resolution urging the Centre to implement in full the recommendations contained in the report of the Mahajan Commission, which, among other things, looked into the border dispute between the State and Maharashtra.

The Centre constituted the Mahajan Commission on October 25, 1966 and it submitted its report on August 25, 1967. Minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai termed Mr. Thackeray’s remarks as baseless and politically motivated. “Marathis in Karnataka are as safe as in Maharashtra” and the MES was not a political force now, he said.

The MES had been defeated in the last Assembly elections and the party was out of power in Belguam City Corporation as well as in other local bodies in the district, he said. “Language and border issues are no more significant issues. The people are concerned about implementation of development works,” Mr. Bommai, who is also in-charge minister for Belguam district, said.

The people of Belguam voted for the national party (BJP) in the last Assembly elections and defeated anti-national and State political forces. There was no truth in the statement made by the Shiv Sena chief that “Mr. Yeddyurapa was bent on the massacre of the Marathi people,” he said.

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