An action committee of the Kannada organisations in Belagavi wrote to the district collector demanding that no official documents should be issued in Marathi, stressing that only the state Cabinet has the power over language policies.
Published Feb 23, 2025 | 2:27 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 23, 2025 | 2:27 PM
Synopsis: The language issue intensified in Belagavi following an alleged promise by District Collector Mohammad Roshan that government notifications would be issued in Marathi. An action committee of the Kannada organisations wrote to the district collector demanding that no official documents be issued in Marathi, stressing that only the state Cabinet has the power over language policies.
Days after a few Marathi youngsters attacked a bus conductor for allegedly asking them to speak in Kannada, the language issue intensified in Belagavi of Karnataka following an alleged promise by District Collector Mohammad Roshan, sources said on Sunday, 23 February.
Pro-Kannada outfits were outraged after news reports in Marathi dailies claimed that the Belagavi district collector promised to issue government notifications in Marathi also.
The reports stated that the decision was taken after Central Commission for Linguistic Minorities Assistant Commissioner S Shivakumar had held a meeting with Roshan.
An action committee of the Kannada organisations in Belagavi wrote to the district collector demanding that no official documents be issued in Marathi, stressing that only the state Cabinet has the power over language policies.
In the letter, the action committee claimed that even while the Kannada-speaking people living in Maharashtra, adjacent to the Karnataka border, have learnt Marathi and acclimatised themselves to the local culture, the same was not happening with the Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka.
They asked the district administration not to bow down to the demands of the Maharashtra-backed organisations citing that no language except Marathi was allowed in name boards in Maharashtra.
“Even after 68 years of the state reorganisation, the Marathi-speaking minority here is still hesitant to learn our state language, Kannada, and join the mainstream,” they said in the letter.
According to reports, representatives of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) and other Marathi organisations were present in the meeting between Roshan and Shivakumar
During the meeting, Marathi organisations demanded that government documents in Belagaivi should also be issued in Marathi, which was reportedly agreed by the district collector.
Meanwhile, the bus services between Karnataka and Maharashtra through the Belagavi border have been temporarily halted.
The buses from Karnataka are only going up to Koganolli in Nippani taluk (Karnataka-Maharashtra border), according to the instructions from the state police. Around 90 buses from Belagavi to various cities of Maharashtra daily.
On 21 February, a group of Marathi youngsters allegedly assaulted bus conductor Mahadev after he requested a passenger to speak in Kannada. The altercation began when a young woman asked for two bus tickets in Marathi, and Mahadev, unable to understand the language, asked her to communicate in Kannada.
The group, upset by this, stopped the moving bus near Balekundri and began attacking Mahadev. The conductor sustained injuries in the assault and was immediately taken to Belagavi BIMS Hospital for medical treatment.
Following the incident, tensions escalated in Chitradurga district, where the Kannada activists of the Karnataka Nava Nirmana Sena smeared black ink on a Maharashtra bus and its driver near Aimangala toll gate on Friday night.
Led by district president Tippeswamy, the activists staged a protest near Guyilalu toll gate, accusing members of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti of assaulting the conductor. As a mark of protest, they also wrote “Jai Karnataka, Jai Kannada” on the bus.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil with inputs from Nolan Pinto.)
