Karnataka and Maharashtra border dispute persists as state marks 70 years
The disagreement over Belagavi and other territories has continued since the 1956 reorganisation of states.
The long-standing border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra over territories such as Belagavi remains a point of friction, according to a report by ThePrint. The issue dates back to the 1956 reorganisation of states along linguistic lines.
Under the States Reorganisation Act 1956, Belagavi and 10 taluks from the Bombay Presidency were assigned to Mysore state, which became Karnataka in 1973. This decision followed a 1881 census showing that 64.39 per cent of the Belagavi population spoke Kannada and 26.04 per cent spoke Marathi.
In 1966, the Centre appointed a commission led by former Chief Justice of India Mehr Chand Mahajan to examine the dispute. Justice Mahajan's 1967 report suggested that 264 villages be moved to Maharashtra, while Belagavi and 247 other villages stay with Karnataka.
Maharashtra rejected the Mahajan Commission report, calling it biased, while Karnataka welcomed it. Maharashtra continues to claim 865 Marathi-speaking villages, including Belagavi city, while Karnataka maintains the 1956 boundaries are final.
The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti has sought the merger of these areas with Maharashtra for decades. Meanwhile, Karnataka has reinforced its presence by holding winter legislature sessions in Belagavi since 2006 and constructing the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in 2012.