Mumbai : Never mind Kasaragod district and Ooty which were in Karnataka (Vishal Mysore) and became parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but Maharasrian Maratha leaders never get tired of asking for the Marathi speaking area back from the folds of Karnataka, without yielding Sholapur, Akkalkot and even Kolhapur, besides other Kannada areas that went to Maharastra but should have been part of present Karnataka after 1956.
Mahajan commission has adjudicated the issue long years back with Belgaum district forming part of Karnataka, from Nizami (Hyd. Karnataka) areas, which are still maintained as backward areas by Congress and BJP areas all these 54 years of state formation.
The state of Karnataka has neglected the border areas of old Bombay / Madras / HK provinces so long that British governors could take them back for fast track improvement! However, in a losing battle of wits and in a hurry to win the war between the two “nations” (as Blitz of Bombay wrote in its issue many decades ago) of Maharastra and Karnataka are not yet reconciled on their border issues, even after a dozen cabinets came and left. Now, the new young CM Ashok Chavan of Maharastra (big nation) has proposed to the Centre to form a Union Territory of 865 villages from Karnataka which are Marathi – speaking ! what about Kannada speaking villages / towns in Maharastra and Kerala (north Malabar)? Do they stay where they are? Will Home Minister P. Chidambaran oblige Ashok Chavan this time? It is a new card dropped in the border game.