Karnataka has asked Maharashtra to stop insurance scheme in border villages, says Siddaramaiah

Karnataka has objected to neighbouring Maharashtra extending its health insurance cover to families in 865 villages within its boundary as the programme has become the latest tipping point for a fresh bout of friction between the two states.

The coalition regime in Maharashtra introduced the Jyotirao Phule health insurance scheme in Karnataka’s border villages ahead of the assembly polls in May last year, sparking a war of words between the CMs of the two states.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, speaking to the media at Bailahongal in Belagavi district on Wednesday, said his government had taken steps on the neighbouring state implementing health insurance in the state’s villages. The Chief Secretary has spoken to his Maharasthra counterpart asking him to immediately stop the programme within Karnataka.


Two years ago, Maharashtra assembly passed a resolution claiming these villages as well as parts of Belagavi and Uttara Kannada districts as its own, pledging to pursue the legal options. Karnataka too retaliated with its own assembly resolution affirming its ownership over these regions.

Maharashtra had in 2004 filed a case in the Supreme Court claiming parts of Karnataka as its own. Political heat picked up in Karnataka after Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde held a meeting with his top officials in Mumbai two years ago and declared that his government was determined to pursue Maharashtra’s claims over parts of Belagavi, as it was a dream of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackrey, who had fought for it all through his life.