Following the border dispute, which has already caused a big controversy in the political circles of Maharashtra and Karnataka, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has discontinued its bus services to Karnataka on the instruction of the Maharashtra home department. On the advice of the police, the transport agency has stopped all MSRTC buses travelling to Karnataka from various districts as of this afternoon. Shekhar Channe, the vice chairman and managing
MSRTC’s director has stated. Approximately 15 to 20 MSRTC buses, mostly from Belagavi, travel to Karnataka.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday termed the situation in the border areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka as “worrisome”, and said time has come to take a stand after seeing what is happening there. Maharashtra ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai, appointed for coordinating the state’s border dispute with Karnataka, were earlier scheduled to meet activists of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti at Belagavi in the southern state on Tuesday and hold talks with them on the decades- old border issue. However, the visit has now being pushed to another date. On Tuesday, a protest by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike – a pro-Kannada organisation against the proposed visit of two Maharashtra ministers to Belagavi, turned violent. However, the ministers postponed their visit after the Karnataka chief minister said their arrival may create a law and order situation in the district.
