Karwar: Demand for Merger of District's 310 Villages with Goa
from daijiworld's special correspondent (MB)
Karwar, Jul 7: The Konkani Ekikaran Manch (Konkani Unification Front) of Goa has supported a faint local demand for merger of three talukas of Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka, which has Karwar as its headquarters, with the state of Goa.
The Goa Konkani Rajya Ekikaran Manch of Sadashivgarh has been demanding the merger of 310 villages of Karwar, Joida and Haliyal talukas of the Uttar Kannada districts, for quite some time.
Map courtesy: Compare Infobase
Goa's Konkani Ekikaran Manch, which had so far not expressed its support to this demand, has now come out in the open, with a statement from its convener Ajitsingh Rane and treasurer Ullasrao Naik Desai, issued in Panaji.
The organization has justified the said demand for merger saying that the Karnataka government had deliberately neglected Konkani language and script. The majority of residents in the mentioned areas are Konkani-speaking. Even the Portuguese colonial rule had extended up to Tarangmath boundary checkpost. Although Dravidians lived here for fifty years, there was Aryan culture in existence, which was common to Goa too. The same culture has sustained itself even now. About 3,470 sq km of territory in Karnataka legitimately belongs to Goa and hence it is time to reconstitute it as the 12th taluka of Goa state, says the press release.
The communication further points out that this region has not witnessed any outbreak of violence and is peace-loving like Goa. Communal harmony has held a place of pride in the region. Many Goan families have settled in Karwar and Sadashivgarh. Goa has given shelter to many Kannadigas too and has shown a high degree of tolerance, it adds.
The office-bearers of the organization have decided to meet Goa's chief minister Digambar Kamat with a view to seeking his intervention in securing justice for the Konkanis and the local inhabitants.
Thick forests, lovely beaches, reservoirs and atomic and hydro-electric power stations are situated in these three talukas. The territory is also made of large rice cultivation. The people of the region are simple. The region has not attained any significant development. This is proof to Karnataka's concern for this region, complains the press release.
There has not been any marked agitation or movement for this cause, but only occasionally a few unknown and unheard-of organizations keep issuing statements to create a rift between two linguistic communities, said a few Kannadigas living here for generations, in response to daijiworld's query on the subject.
Coming as it does after a gap of a few years, the statement is likely to fuel a controversy and generate a heated debate.