MYSURU: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will be in Delhi on Tuesday to meet senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi to hold discussion regarding the border dispute in contentious areas between Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Talking to reporters in Mysuru on Monday, the CM said he will meet Mukul Rohatgi on Tuesday and also to meet Union ministers for a discussion on the border row as well as in connection with development issues.
“The case pertaining to the border dispute with Maharashtra is coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court on November 30. The government has appointed former justice of the apex court, Justice Shivaraj Patil, as chairman of the Karnataka Border and Rivers Protection Commission, with whom also a meeting has been held. The state is all set for a legal battle with neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka’s stand will be effectively presented before the court”, he said.
The CM refused to comment on the border dispute saying that it is not correct to discuss it in public since the matter is pending before the court.
On Sunday too, the CM had said that the state is all set for a legal battle with Maharashtra over the border dispute, after chairing a meeting with senior advocates and officials in the wake of the case coming up before the Supreme Court.
“The petition filed by Maharashtra with regard to the border issue does not have any legal provision since it was filed on the basis of the States Reorganisation Act and Article 3 (formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing states) of the Constitution”, he said.
Bommai had earlier said that the border row has become a political tool in Maharashtra, and any party in power will raise the issue for political purposes. “My government is capable of protecting the borders of Karnataka and has taken steps also”, Bommai had said.
Bommai claimed that some villages in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, which are facing a water crisis, have passed a resolution seeking their merger with Karnataka. However, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis denied the claims and said that no such village has sought a merger with Karnataka in recent times. (ANI)