Mumbai:Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to resolve the state's long-pending boundary dispute with neighboring Karnataka.
In the letter dated August 9, Pawar appealed to Modi to take the lead in stopping the Karnataka government's "atrocities" on Marathi-speaking people and include the disputed areas in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra claims certain areas, including Belgaum, Karwar, and Nippani which are part of Karnataka, contending the majority of the population in these areas is Marathi-speaking. The dispute between the two states over Belgaum and other border areas is pending before the Supreme Court for many years.
Pawar said it has been more than 60 years since the formation of Maharashtra state, with Mumbai as its capital, but, Belgaum, Karwar, Bidar, Bhalki, Nippani, and other Marathi-speaking areas of Karnataka are still not in Maharashtra. "People of Maharashtra and those living in the Marathi-speaking areas of Karnataka bordering Maharashtra regret that the issue hasn't been resolved yet," the NCP leader said.