Belgaum fight: Karnataka removes Maharashtra signboards

BELGAUM: An uneasy calm prevails at Yellur, the Karnataka village in Belgaum district where about 200 policemen stand guard at a site that until 10 days ago had a signboard declaring the place to be in Maharashtra.

Police have erected barricades on either side of the road cutting through this village – located about 10 km from Belgaum City – and surrounded by lush green fields growing the premium Basmati rice. The Police action at the village after they removed the signboard has left Karnataka and Maharashtra deeply divided, regardless of the fact that both are ruled by the Congress.

In the past few days, the Karnataka Police have been on an overdrive reclaiming villages of Karnataka that bear the Maharashtra State sign-boards written in Marathi even as Maharashtra Cabinet passed a resolution condemning what it called ‘’sustained attack” on Marathi speaking people in Belgaum, and the Supreme Court disapproving of the police action on the Marathi-speaking villagers of Yellur.

“In the last 10 days, we have removed sign boards that declared those villages are in Maharashtra,” said Bhaskar Rao, IGP, Northern Range, Karnataka. There were about two dozen such boards, according to him, in Khanapur and Belgaum Rural areas, and a few more are still left.

“We will remove them one by one in a peaceful way. Along the way, we are also registering criminal cases against those found fanning hatred between linguistic groups,” Rao said.