User:Achitnis/Belgaum draft

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Border Problem

Belgaum district was incorporated into the newly formed Mysore state (now Karnataka) with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act (1956), which reorganised India's states along linguistic lines. Maharashtra government contested this, being of the opinion that the district had more people speaking Marathi than Kannada. The Government of India constituted a four-member committee on June 5th, 1960, which did not recommend any changes. On further insistance by Maharashtra, the Central Government of India constituted the Mahajan Commission on October 25, 1966. The commission, upon review of Maharashtra's claims, recommended the exchange of several villages between the two states but rejected Maharashtra's claim on Belgaum city. Maharashtra refuted these recommendations, requesting another review of the issue. The Karnataka government pressed for the implementation of the report. Attempts were made to rekindle discussions. On March 15 2006, Maharashtra filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India, this time not on a linguistic basis but a human one. In response, the Government of India filed an affidavit on Aug 28, 2006, stating that Maharashtra's suit was 'not maintainable in law', and was belated and therefore barred by limitation.

On September 25th, 2006, Belgaum hosted a five-day special session of both the Houses of the Legislature. This was only the third Indian state (after Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra) to have had a legislative session outside the state capitals. During the session, almost all the members made a demand for announcing Belgaum as the second capital of the State.