NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah will meet the chief ministers of
Maharashtra and Karnataka on December 14 to soothe the tempers on
the border dispute between the two states, the Nationalist Congress Party leader Amol Kolhe said on Friday.
Mr Kolhe was speaking to reporters after a delegation of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) -- Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition - parliamentarians met Mr Shah to air their grievances on the border dispute.
The MVA delegation also complained to Mr Shah about the "insulting references" to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and some other BJP leaders.
"The home minister gave us a patient hearing and assured the MVA parliamentarians that he will call the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Karnataka on December 14 and work towards finding a cordial solution to the issue," Mr Kolhe, the Lok Sabha member from Shirur in Maharashtra, told reporters here.
On Thursday, the MVA parliamentarians had written to the Union home minister, warning that the Karnataka-Maharashtra border row had reached a stage where it could erupt into full-blown violence and had sought his personal intervention.
In a letter to Mr Shah, the MVA parliamentarians claimed that "high-handed" actions by Karnataka had "hurt the sentiments" of the Marathi-speaking people in the border districts at a time the matter was in the Supreme Court.
The NCP lawmaker said the MVA delegation also sought strict action against those leaders and constitutional authorities who had made "insulting references" to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
The Karnataka-Maharashtra border row escalated into violence after vehicles from both states were attacked and damaged in Belgaum (now Belgavi) and Pune. Since its creation on May 1, 1960 Maharashtra has claimed that 865
villages, including Belgaum, Karwar and Nippani, should be merged into
it. Karnataka, however, has refused to part with its territory.
