Border row: Kannada activists assault pro-Goan outfit leaders

The police arrested several Kannada activists at Karwar in coastal Karnataka yesterday after they assaulted leaders of a pro-Goa outfit, which is campaigning for merger of Konkani-speaking regions of Uttara Kannada with neighbouring Goa.

The activists of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike led by Pravin Shetty, who had reached Karwar from Bangalore, are reported to have accosted the President of Goa Konkani Rajya Ekikaran Manch Asha Palankar and her husband Prakash Palankar when they were proceeding on a two-wheeler. Soon, the Kannada activists began pelting eggs at the husband-wife duo.

But, the police reached the spot immediately and took the Kannada activists into custody. The situation remained tense in Karwar in view of the incident. While Asha Palankar heads the Manch, her husband Prakash Palankar is an executive member of the outfit.

Police said a team of Kannada activists under the leadership of Shetty had arrived in Karwar to oppose the efforts by pro-Konkani organizations to secure the merger of Karwar, Joida and Haliyal taluks of Uttara Kannada districts with Goa.

Much to the chagrin of Kannada activists, the pro-Konkani organizations in Karwar had already moved the Supreme Court seeking the merger on the grounds that majority of people in the three taluks speak Konkani, the official language of Goa.

The issue even figured in the Karnataka legislature with several members of the Legislative Council, cutting across party lines, urging the Government to banish the activists of the Konkani organizations for carrying out a signature campaign in support of the unification.

Meanwhile, Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, who paid a visit to Belgaum, said the merger of the three taluks of Karnataka with Goa was not before his Government. He claimed that the pro-Konkani organizations had not even brought the issue to the notice of Goa Government.