KOLHAPUR: As many as 10 grampanchayats from Akkalkot tehsil of Solapur district passed the resolution in their gramsabha's to join Karnataka and sought no-objection from Maharashtra government by a petition submitted through Solapur's collector office.
The step taken by these villages is a set-back to Maharashtra government which has just started it's outreach to the border villages of Jat tehsil which too had made the same demand few years ago.
Recently Karnataka chief minister Basavraj Bommai has claimed the state's rights over 42 villages of Jat, Solapur and Akkalkot on the basis of majority of Kannada speaking residents.
The villages from Akkalkot which passed the resolution are- Dharsang, Mangrul, Alage, Shawal, Kegaon, Hilli, Korsegaon, Kallakarjal, Devikavathe and Andewadi.
Tammanna Patil, sarpanch of Dharsang said, "We celebrating 75th anniversary of India's Independence, but still the border villages are being neglected. One will find the roads nearly absent in our villages and on other side few kilometres away, Karnataka villages have all the basic infrastructure of top-notch quality. We don't get enough water through canals for irrigation from Bhima river. Also, the farmers do not get power during day time which is not the case in Karnataka."
Most of these villages have majority Kannada population.
The district authorities claimed that they have received the resolutions and the copy of petition which they will be forwarding to the state government to ponder upon. Dharsang sarpanch said that they are ready to take back their resolution if the Maharashtra government takes steps effectively to address the concerns as early as possible.
