Tussle between states turns violent

Mumbai: In a ‘violent turn’ of events related to the ongoing Maharashtra-Karnataka border tussle, activists of ‘Kannada Rakshana Vedika Sanghatana’ pelted stones at a truck coming from Maharashtra at the Belgaum-Hirebagwadi toll booth in Karnataka. Some trucks of Maharashtra were damaged in the stone pelting. As the news about the incident spread like wildfire, the opposition parties’s political agenda in Maharashtra received a shot in the arm, as they tried to corner the Shinde-Fadnavis government stressing that the neighbouring BJP ruled state of Karnataka had been aggressive in its approach while the government in Maharashtra sat idle. The windscren of trucks were damaged in the attack. Meanwhile, the The Karnataka police took president of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, Narayana Gowda, and hundreds of workers into custody following the violence. On the other hand, after the incident in Belgaum, a reactionary approach was taken by Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena as the Thackeray group activists blackened Karnataka vehicles at Pune’s Swargate bus depot. Number plates of Karnataka buses parked at Pune’s Swargate bus depot were blackened as workers of the Thackeray faction raised slogans of ‘Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji’ with saffron flags in their hands. Along with this, photographs written ‘Jai Maharashtra’ have also been pasted on the buses coming from Karnataka. On receiving information about the incident, Swargate police reached the spot. Senior police inspector of Swargate police station Ashok Indalkar said that the police have detained seven activists and appropriate legal action will be taken against them.