Supersede Nippani City Municipality – Kannada groups

The Nippani City Municipality in the border district of Belgaum has become the target of pro Kannada groups’ ire for passing a controversial resolution on the border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Though the resolution does not expressly seek the merger of Marathi speaking areas of Belgaum with neighbouring Maharashtra, the Municipality’s appeal to the Federal Government to give its opinion to the Supreme Court on the border dispute was enough to raise the hackles of Kannada activists.

Activists of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other pro Kannada groups have been staging protests in different parts of the State urging Governor Rameshwar Thakur to supersede the civic body for transgressing its limits.

Seeking to remind the Governor that the State Government had superseded Belgaum City Corporation two years ago for adopting a resolution seeking the merger of Marathi-speaking areas of Belgaum district with Maharashtra, the Vedike leader Rajeev Topannavar said the Governor should terminate Nippani City Municipality so that no other body dare pass such an anti-Karnataka resolution in the future.

It may be mentioned here that pro-Kannada activists fought pitched battles with Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES) supporters in Nippani after the controversial resolution was adopted at the civic body’s first meeting recently.

While the Vedike activists stormed the Municipality building and damaged the furniture, the MES supporters retaliated by removing Kannada name boards in the City and also replaced the Kannada flag atop the statue of Rani Chennamma with a saffron-coloured flag. The MES supporters pelted stones of the house of a Vedike leader and burnt a two-wheeler standing outside his house.

Topannavar also warned that thousands of Vedike activists from different parts of the State will storm Nippani if the police does not arrest the MES activists, who were responsible for the recent riots.