How Kannada-speaking villages of Maharashtra are caught in a parched periphery

A political war of words has erupted and tensions have flared up over a protracted boundary dispute, with Karnataka staking claim to 40 predominantly Kannada-speaking villages in Jat taluka in Maharashtra’s Sangli district. We continue to get stepmotherly treatment from the State.” Mr. Horti says he has taken part in several agitations over the exclusion of 48 of the taluka’s 128 villages from the Mhaisal lift irrigation scheme, which was introduced by the Maharashtra government in 1984 to provide water for agricultural and drinking purposes to rain-deficit regions in Sangli and Solapur districts. Our villages are not covered under any water supply scheme and are forced to deal with drought for decades ”Bharat Ravindra KothResident of Tikondi village ‘Merger with Karnataka only solution’ Mr. Horti says thousands of villagers in the water-starved taluka believe that the implementation of the 1967 Mahajan Commission report — which recommended 247 villages, including Jat, Akkalkot and Solapur, to be made a part of Karnataka, and 264 villages, including Nippani, Khanapur and Nandagad, to be merged with Maharashtra — can put an end to the boundary dispute. “The demand for a merger with Karnataka is valid as the villagers have run out of patience with the Maharashtra government”Vikramsinh Sawant Jat MLA Valid demand, says local MLA Vikramsinh Balasaheb Sawant, Congress leader and MLA from the Jat Assembly constituency, says the “demand for a merger with the neighbouring State is valid as a majority of the villagers own small or marginal land holdings and have run out of patience with the government”. “As immediate relief, the Maharashtra government should request Karnataka to release water from the Tubachi-Babaleshwar lift irrigation project on humanitarian grounds,” Mr. Sawant says.