Maha-K'taka border: Confident of good outcome, says Bommai ahead of SC hearing

Set for a legal battle with Maharashtra over the border dispute Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday expressed confidence about a good outcome as he asserted that as per the Constitution and the States Reorganisation Act the states stand is justifiedThe Chief Minister is in New Delhi and held discussions with senior advocate in the states legal panel Mukul Rohatgi in the wake of the case coming up before the Supreme Court for hearing on November 30I have met Rohatgi on the border dispute the advocate general has briefed things I too shared inputs regarding the background on the MaharashtraKarnataka border issue and we discussed the legal status He told me that all the preparations have been made for tomorrow Bommai saidSpeaking to reporters after meeting Rohatgi in the national capital he said the important thing is the maintainability of Maharashtras caseIn 2017 the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Deepak Mishra had framed preliminary issues regarding the maintainability of the case which was challenged by Maharashtra What should be our objections or arguments to it has been decided and we are confident that as per the Constitution and the States Reorganisation Act Karnatakas stand is justified We are confident of a good outcome he addedThe border dispute dates back to the 1960s after the reorganisation of states on linguistic linesAlso Read Aarey car shed SC permits Mumbai Metro to pursue its plea for felling 84 treesMaharashtra laid claim to Belagavi which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency as it has a sizable Marathispeaking population It also laid claim to 80 Marathispeaking villages which are currently part of KarnatakaResponding to a question on damages caused to Karnatakas vehicles in Maharashtra during the last couple of days the CM said such things have happened earlier too due to internal politics in that state as part of an attempt by political parties there to showcase their seriousness on the border issueI had asked our Home Secretary and Chief Secretary to speak to their counterparts in Maharashtra to control such things and now it has been controlled to an extent he saidTo another query on people of more than 40 villages in Maharashtra bordering Karnataka wanting to meet him with a demand to merge their areas with the state Bommai said any further decision on this will be taken only after consulting all political parties in the state and legal expertsThis stand by them people in border villages is not new I too have spoken about it but the issue is before the Supreme Court so it has to be decided after consulting all political parties and legal experts he saidResponding to a reported statement by leader of opposition Siddaramaiah questioning as to why not include those villages of Maharashtra as desired by the people there Bommai called it a political statementWhen he Siddaramaiah was the Chief Minister a similar resolution was made why did he not join them then The question is not that for joining parts of the other state things have to be considered legally Im a responsible Chief Minister and everything has to be done within the Constitutional and legal framework he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever