The vexed boundary issue involving Belgaum was again in focus on Saturday with the Maharashtra Chief Minister sticking to his demand for Union Territory status for disputed areas and his Karnataka counterpart denying even the existence of a dispute. A delegation of Maharashtra Congress leaders,led by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan,met party chief Sonia Gandhi and apprised her of the situation in the state in the wake of flaring up of the boundary dispute with Karnataka. They had already met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue. Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa told reporters that "Belgaum is integral part of Karnataka. Mahajan Commission report is final and needs to be implemented. Maharashtra Government is creating confusion on the issue unnecessarily". On the other hand,Chavan said he was firm on his demand for granting Union Territory status to an area comprising 865 villages in Karnataka which have a majority of Marathi-speaking population. The demand for UT status remains. But it was not raised in the discussions with Gandhi," Chavan told reporters. They wanted a team appointed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to tour the disputed areas in Karnataka. They alleged that Marathi-speaking people were being "harassed" by the state government there. Countering Maharashtra's argument,Yeddyurappa said that Marathi-speaking people living in Belgaum are "very safe and there is no need for panic". "Government will not allow any individual or institution to disturb peace in the state",he said. The Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary row came to the limelight following the Central government's affidavit in the Supreme Court in late June that the disputed areas could not be made part of Maharashtra merely because a majority of the population there speak Marathi. Karnataka state Congress President R V Deshpande,however,disagreed with the demands of his own party leaders from Maharashtra on Belgaum.
