K'taka-Maha border dispute not election issue but Khanapur, other border villages cry for progress
Belagavi (PTI): Khanapur with Marathi-speaking majority people is one of the 264 villages which the Mahajan Commission had recommended should be transferred to neighbouring Maharashtra way back in 1967. It also includes the Nippani Assembly segment.
Sadly, the dispute over the transfer of the number of linguistic majority villages to both Karnataka and Maharashtra has gradually become a politically sensitive issue with neighbouring Maharashtra asserting its claim over more area.
And the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES), a pro-Marathi socio-political organisation which operates from Belagavi and enjoys support from across party lines from Maharashtra, has been fighting for this cause and even been contesting Assembly polls in Karnataka.
"MES has always fought the Assembly election in Khanapur raising the linguistic issue, not development. Three generations have suffered without seeing any development," Vittal Mahadev Karambalkar, Vice-President of Mahalaxmi Group that owns a sugar factory in this region, told PTI.
Since the start of the Assembly polls in 1960s in Karnataka, MES has won the maximum number of times from the Khanapur Assembly seat but no candidate has been re-elected so far. The BJP first won the seat in 2008, while the Congress did so in 2018.
"It was during the BJP tenure, about Rs 450 crore funds had come for the development of Khanapur. We hope the BJP wins again and our current generation gets to see development," said Parushuram Nayak, General Secretary, BJP- Schedule Tribe Morcha in Khanapur.
The pendency of Maharashtra government's plea in the Supreme Court challenging the State Reorganisation Act of 1956 and non-implementation of the 1967 Mahajan Commission recommendations have led to the neglect of Khanapur, which lacks infrastructure like bus facilities and schools in forest areas, proper roads, bridges and canals, higher education centres, among others.
Baju Patil, a farmer who owns two acres of land in Junjanwad village here said: "I am not able to take two crops due to lack of irrigation. We could easily address the water problem if a canal is built as we have the Malaprabha river flowing in this area."
Patil said he even struggles to get good quality farm inputs and finds it difficult to sell the produce at minimum support price.
Many of them complained that they were getting only 15 days work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in a year and it's hard to find a job in the absence of industry or business activity.
Although some of the eligible beneficiaries are getting the benefits of state and central schemes like free power for irrigation, financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (gramin) and PM-KISAN, the region still lags behind in development when compared to the neighbouring constituencies.
Not only Khanapur, residents of many of the villages which the Mahajan Commission recommended for transfer to both states are waiting for early resolution of this dispute so that development works are not delayed further.
The Mahajan Commission in its report submitted in 1967 had recommended that 264 villages should be transferred to Maharashtra, and that Belagavi and 247 villages should remain with Karnataka. However, Maharashtra rejected the report, calling it biased and illogical, while Karnataka welcomed it.
Despite demands from Karnataka, the Centre never implemented the recommendations of the report. And irrespective of the party in power, both states have from the beginning struck to their positions.
The Mahajan Commission report was tabled in Parliament way back in 1970 but no discussion has taken place yet. However, in 2004, the Maharashtra government filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging some provisions of the State Reorganisation Act, 1956 and demanded 865 villages from five districts of Karnataka.
"It's been 19 years, the apex court has not yet heard arguments about the maintainability of the petition. The Maharashtra government says it can get justice from the court, we are arguing the border issue comes under the purview of Parliament as per Article 3 of the Constitution," Kannada activist Ashok Chandargi said.
In the absence of "political will", the dispute remains unresolved despite the BJP-ruled governments in both states and even at the Centre. The stalemate continues till date and people continue to suffer, he added.
Unfortunately, the border dispute has not become an election issue in the Khanapur assembly segment where both BJP and Congress have fielded strong Marathi candidates Vittal Rao Halgekar and Anjali Nimbalkar respectively. MES has also fielded influential leader Muralidhar Patil to keep alive the border dispute issue.
Incidentally, many Marathi-speaking people are of the view that whatever little development undertaken so far in Khanapur is better than Maharashtra and have realised that MES has been fighting polls on linguistic grounds for political interests.
Asked if residents of Khanapur would be happy to be part of Maharashtra if the dispute gets resolved in the near future, householder Laxmi Bajirao Nayak said, "We have better facilities here and don't want to shift. I received Rs 1.50 lakh financial assistance under Awaas yojana and my father-in-law has received Rs 4,000 so far under the PM-KISAN."
"When I am getting everything in my house, why should I shift to another's house," Karambalkar said.
There are still some sections of people in Khanapur who want to be part of Maharashtra as they are finding it difficult to transact in Kannada language. For instance, property papers are in Kannada language which many people cannot read here.
A similar plight prevails in Kannada-speaking majority villages located in Maharashtra where the innocent people are caught in the crossfire of the current battle over the long-pending border dispute.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
