Maharashtra-Karnataka border row: Over 100 detained as violence breaks out in Belagavi

Police established check posts on all roads connecting with Maharashtra and verified credentials of all coming in different vehicles towards the state

KRV activists staging protest near toll plaza at Hirebagewadi village in Belagavi taluk on the Pune-Bengaluru national highway after they were prevented to travel towards Belagavi on Tuesday to protest against Maharashtra’s stand on Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary dispute. Credit: DH Photo

Maharashtra ministers skipped their much-hyped visit to Belagavi on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border, while more than 100 activists of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), on their way to protest against the neighbouring state and activists of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) who wanted to submit memorandum against the state, were detained by police on Tuesday.

Police maintained strict vigil on the roads connecting with Maharashtra to ensure that ministers and MP from the neighbouring state, whose entry was banned, do not enter the state to hold meetings with leaders of MES over boundary dispute.

To implement ban on their entry, police established check posts on all the roads connecting with Maharashtra and verified credentials of all coming in different vehicles towards the state. Adequate police deployments were made on the roads leading towards Maharashtra to prevent untoward incidents.

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District Magistrate Nitesh Patil had banned entry of Maharashtra Higher and Technological Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, Maharashtra Excise Minister Shambhuraj Desai and MP Dhairyasheel Mane to the district on Tuesday. Patil and Desai were nodal ministers for Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary dispute and Mane was chairman for high power committee.

Maharashtra ministers postponed their visit citing that they do not want any untoward incident to take place on the occasion of Mahaparinirvan Day of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

More than 100 activists of KRV, led by its president T A Narayangowda, on their way to Belagavi to protest against Maharashtra’s stand on the boundary row, were detained at Hirebagewadi. They pelted stones on trucks bearing Maharashtra registration numbers to express their ire. Number plates of vehicles were painted black, windscreens were damaged in stone-pelting and Kannada flags were tied atop them.

Activists of MES were detained in the premises of Deputy Commissioners, while they had come to submit memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister. As they had come in large numbers, Deputy Commissioner Nitesh Patil did not accept their memorandum making accusations against state of violating constitutional provisions by banning entry of Maharashtra ministers and MP.