Border row: Kannada activists reach Belagavi amid Maharashtra ministers' visit

Activists of different Kannada organisations started arriving in the city on Monday to oppose the visit of Maharashtra Minister for Higher and Technological Education Chandrakant Patil, Maharashtra Excise Minister Shambhuraj Desai, and Chairman of Maharashtra High Power Committee for Karnataka-Maharashtra Boundary Dispute and MP Dhairyasheel Mane to meet leaders and workers of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) on December 6.

Patil and Desai were nodal ministers of Maharashtra for the boundary dispute while Mane was recently appointed as the high-power committee chairman. Their visit has been scheduled in response to the recent plea to Patil by leaders of the MES to visit the boundary areas to review their grievances.

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On Monday morning, the activists of different Kannada organisations who arrived in the city congregated at Chennamma Circle. They staged sit-in protests and raised slogans against Maharashtra and MES for their anti-state stand and condemned the proposed visit of Maharashtra ministers aimed at disrupting peace in the border town.

A rally was staged from Chennamma Circle to the Deputy Commissioner's office. More activists were expected to arrive in the city late on Monday and early Tuesday morning.

The activists of Karnataka Ekikaran Samiti, Bengaluru urged the government to ban entry of Maharashtra ministers and leaders aimed at disrupting linguistic harmony in Belagavi. Patil, Desai and Mane should not visit the city when linguistic sentiments were at its peak over the Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary row, they said.

Security has been beefed up in the city with a large number of police personnel manning prominent roads in the city and the circles. Motorists entering the city too were subjected to inquiry and later allowed to enter.

Barricades were placed on different roads to control the movement of vehicles.