11 Maha panchayats served notices over resolution to merge with K'taka

According to villagers, the police on December 2 served a notice to the gram panchayats warning that charges could be framed against them under section 149 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which pertains to non-bailable arrest warrants. The police also warned gram panchayat officials to inform them before holding any meetings.

NewsBharati 09-Dec-2022 16:53:57 PM

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Mumbai, December 09: Amid the escalating border tension between Maharashtra and Karnataka, the Eknath Shinde government-issued police notices to 11-gram panchayats in Akkalkot taluk of Solapur district for passing a resolution last month to merge with Karnataka if they are not provided with basic amenities.

The gram panchayats that passed the resolution on November 28 are Alage, Shegoan, Kallakarjal, Dharasang, Kegoan, Devikavata, Shaval, Hilli, Andewadi, Pan Mangarul and Korsegoan. They cover around 42 villages where a large part of the population are Kannada speakers.

The resolution states that these villages were neglected by the Maharashtra government.

According to villagers, the police on December 2 served a notice to the gram panchayats warning that charges could be framed against them under section 149 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which pertains to non-bailable arrest warrants. The police also warned gram panchayat officials to inform them before holding any meetings.

Akkalkot gram panchayat chairperson Sukanya Hunnure, who signed on the resolution copy submitted to the district collector of Solapur on November 28, said “With the consent of every citizen of Akkalkot, we passed a resolution and in our memorandum to the DC, we have asked for a No Objection Letter (NOC) to get merged to our motherland Karnataka, as we wanted to freedom from the vicious clutches of Maharashtra, which has kept us in a pre-Independence state. Not a single civic requirement was met to date.”

On December 2, 11 other gram panchayats comprising 25 villages in Jat taluk of Sangli district also passed a similar resolution and presented a memorandum to the district collector demanding NoCs to merge with Karnataka.

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Jath Taluku Kannada Horata Samiti president Somaling Choudhari told HT on Wednesday: “Maharashtra is intentionally neglecting us as our taluk is dominated by Kannadigas. Our villages are kept in the same situation as it was in 1947. We don’t have a tap water facility, individual or public toilets, street lights, or hospitals.”

“Even though there are 215 Kannada schools in our villages, there is only one teacher for every 200 students. Textbooks are also not provided in time. How can you live in such a situation? As hundreds of our representations went in vain, we finally took the decision of getting merged with Karnataka...” he added.