Karnataka to take all-party delegation to PM: Border row

BELGAUM:  A day after the special session of the Karnataka Legislature passed an unanimous resolution on the boundary row with Maharashtra, the state government on Tuesday decided to take an all-party delegation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek his intervention to settle the dispute.

As the boundary issue hotted up, the government also decided to write to the Prime Minister and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on alleged "provocative and uncalled for statements" made by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil on the dispute at a convention here.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa told reporters that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy would shortly lead an all-party delegation to the Prime Minister to demand that the Centre act at the earliest to end the boundary row by implementing the Mahajan Commission report.

"There should not be any delay in implementing the Mahajan report. The state will not pass any more resolutions on the issue," he said, a day after the legislature adopted the fourth resolution on the boundary issue since 1967.

Patil's remarks drew the state's ire, with Yediyurappa saying Karnataka would lodge its protest with Maharashtra demanding action against him for making "uncalled for" remarks that would vitiate peace between the two states.

At a convention organised by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi, Patil had said his state was ready to exchange Kannada-speaking villages with Karnataka if the latter was willing to hand over Marathi-speaking areas.