BENGALURU/BELAGAVI: Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday came down heavily on the Maharashtra government’s decision to implement a health insurance scheme in Karnataka‘s villages near the border, saying he would take it up with Union home minister Amit Shah.
“I strongly condemn the Maharashtra government’s announcement of health insurance schemes in our villages, as it violates the agreement we had arrived upon in the presence of Amit Shah,” Bommai told media.
Reacting to the development, opposition Congress demanded that the Centre dismiss the Maharashtra government and called for CM Bommai’s resignation for what they claimed his inability to protect the interests of Karnataka.
In December last year, Shah had stepped in to defuse border tensions between the two states. He had called a meeting between the two CMs, following which he said both sides had agreed not to make any claim or counterclaim until a Supreme Court verdict comes through.
However, the issue was rekindled after the Maharashtra government, led by chief minister Eknath Shinde, recently announced it would allocate an additional Rs 54 crore for its ‘Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana’, so that the benefits could be extended to 865 border villages in Karnataka that Maharashtra has been laying claim to.
According to Bommai, many taluk and gram panchayats in the border districts of Jath and Solapur had passed resolutions to join Karnataka as they were not getting justice in Maharashtra. “In such a situation, the Maharashtra government should behave responsibly, considering the sensitivity of the issue.”
In Belagavi, KPCC chief DK Shivakumar and opposition leader Siddaramaiah strongly condemned the Maharashtra government’s move, with both terming it an attempt to disturb the federal structure of India.
