Karnataka - Belgaum   

Siddangouda Patil lashes out at Maharashtra politicians

Belgaum: The former Mayor of Belgaum and member of the Kannada Development Authority Siddangouda Patil has lashed out at political leaders from Maharashtra for provoking Marathi speaking people in Belgaum and border areas of Karnataka by making baseless and false charges against the Karnataka Government.

He told presspersons here on Sunday that Ministers and legislators from Maharashtra were misleading and provoking Marathi people living here at the cost of linguistic harmony.

He said there was no truth in allegation that there had been atrocities on Marathi speaking people in Belgaum or any other part of the Karnataka. In fact, it was the Maharashtra Government which had adopted anti-Kannada attitude by closing down Kannada medium schools in the border areas of that State, he said.

Mr. Patil said there was no change in the number of Marathi medium schools in towns and villages along the border of Karnataka since reorganisation of the State. All the 332 schools continue to exist and many of them get grant-in-aid from the State Government, he said. However, in Maharashtra the number of Kannada medium schools had come down from 225 to 65 over the period, Mr. Patil claimed.

It was unfair on the part of politicians from Maharashtra to accuse the Karnataka Government of atrocities against Marathi speaking people, Mr. Patil said.

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Siddangouda Patil lashes out at Maharashtra politicians

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