'Will not tolerate trouble to Kannadigas in Maharashtra on border issue': DCM Laxman Savadi
Bengaluru, Jan 1: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi on Wednesday warned that the state government would not tolerate any trouble to Kannadigas in Maharashtra over the Belagavi border issue.
"I want to tell the Maharashtra Chief Minister that the Karnataka government will not tolerate any trouble to Kannadigas in Maharashtra," he told reporters here.
His statement comes in the backdrop of Shiv Sena workers reportedly hitting the streets in Kolhapur on Sunday and burning effigies of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and stopping screening of Kannada films there.
The activists had also blackened billboards, having Kannada text, of some shopkeepers in Gandhinagar area.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had in December last year appointed ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Eknath Shinde as co-coordinators to oversee his government's efforts to expedite the case relating to the boundary dispute with Karnataka.
The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, which has been fighting for the merger of 800 odd villages with Maharashtra, had recently submitted a memorandum of their demands to Uddhav Thackeray.
Maharashtra claims the border district of Belagavi was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, but is currently a district of Karnataka, on linguistic grounds.
Savadi, who hails from Belagavi, said the Maharashtra Chief Minister would do well to recall what his cousin Raj Thackeray had said in the past on the matter.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray had said in October 2014 in Mumbai politicians from the state have never been serious about finding a solution to the dispute and the issue has always been used for politics.
The MNS chief had recalled that when MEK members had met him a few years ago, he had said he was prepared, if required, to meet the then Karnataka chief minister to discuss the issue and demand that there should not be injustice on Marathi speaking people living in Belgaum and nearby areas.
On December 30, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had accused Uddhav Thackeray of raking up the Belagavi issue again for political gains and declared that 'not even an inch of land' would be given away.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
