Maharashtra budget session: Opposition demands resolution of border row with Karnataka, respect for historical figures

Pic/Sameer Abedi

On the first day of the Maharashtra legislature's budget session on Monday, Opposition members demanded a fair price to farmers for foodgrains, resolution of the border dispute with Karnataka and respect for historical figures.

Legislators of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction and other parties gathered at the Vidhan Bhawan steps and raised slogans to put forth their demands.

"The state government should ensure that historical figures are respected in the state. The government needs to come up with plans for ensuring fair prices for foodgrains as well as resolving the pending Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue," said a legislator.

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The opposition members also called the ruling Eknath Shinde-Bharatiya Janata Party dispensation in the state as the "ED" government.

A controversy had erupted in November last year when the then Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari said warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was an 'icon of olden times' and personalities like Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar to Nitin Gadkari were the modern icons of the state.

The border issue between Maharashtra and Karnataka dates back to 1957 after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines. Maharashtra had laid claim to Karnataka's Belagavi district, which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, as it has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population.

It also laid claim to 814 Marathi-speaking villages which are currently part of the southern state. Karnataka, however, considers the demarcation done on linguistic lines as per the States Reorganisation Act and the 1967 Mahajan Commission Report as final.

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