ಬೆಳಗಾವಿ ಗಡಿ ವಿವಾದ ಮತ್ತು ಸುವರ್ಣ ಸೌಧದ ಚಳಿಗಾಲದ ಅಧಿವೇಶನ: ಇದು ನಮಗೆ ಏನು ಹೇಳುತ್ತದೆBelagavi border row and the Suvarna Soudha winter session: what it means for us

Once again the Karnataka Legislative Assembly gathers in our city. The winter session at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi is set to begin on December 8, 2025, and run for about ten days. For the people of North Karnataka, this is more than a calendar event. It is a yearly test of two questions at once: whether Belagavi's place in Karnataka is respected, and whether our region's long-neglected development is finally taken seriously.

First, the border. Maharashtra's claim is old, and it is worth recalling the record plainly. The dispute goes back to 1953, when Maharashtra objected to the inclusion of 865 villages — including Belgaum — in the then Mysore state, after states were reorganised on linguistic lines. To examine the matter, the Union government set up the Mahajan Commission in October 1966 under former Chief Justice of India Mehr Chand Mahajan. Its report, submitted in August 1967, recommended that 264 villages be transferred to Maharashtra, and that Belgaum along with 247 villages remain with Karnataka. Karnataka welcomed the report. Maharashtra rejected it, called it biased, and in 2004 moved the Supreme Court, claiming Belagavi city and 865 villages across four districts — Belagavi, Bidar, Karwar and Gulbarga. That suit has been pending since 2004.

These are the facts, and they have not changed. Karnataka was constituted on a linguistic basis under the States Reorganisation Act of 1956. Belagavi is, and will remain, part of Karnataka. When the legislature meets here, fringe outfits such as the Maharashtra Ekikarana Samiti try to stage parallel conventions; in past sessions activists have been detained and bus services to Maharashtra suspended as a precaution. We do not seek confrontation with our neighbour's people, with whom we share daily life, trade and family ties. But provocation timed to the session is not a real grievance — it is theatre, and it should not be allowed to crowd out the work the House came here to do.

Because the deeper point is the second one. The Suvarna Vidhana Soudha was inaugurated on 11 October 2012 by President Pranab Mukherjee, built to mark Karnataka's golden jubilee and to give the state a second seat of power in the north. Its purpose was never symbolic alone — it was a promise that North Karnataka would not have to travel to Bengaluru to be heard. That promise is only half kept if the building is opened for ten days and then locked for the rest of the year.

This is where the 2025 session offers a genuine opening. Speaker Basavaraj Horatti has said that a full day — Thursday — will be set aside for discussion of North Karnataka's development, and that a circular will go to all MLAs so no regional issue is ignored. He put it bluntly: MLAs from South Karnataka actively discuss development, while those from the North have fallen behind. We agree that the gap is real, and we welcome a dedicated day. But a single Thursday is a beginning, not an answer.

For us, the agenda is clear: irrigation and drinking water, roads and rail to the interior taluks, district hospitals and colleges, and jobs that keep our young people from migrating. The border question deserves a firm, united legal defence in the Supreme Court — and nothing more theatrical than that. The development question deserves budgets, deadlines and follow-through, every year, not just when the cameras come to Belagavi. Our demand to every legislator who sits under that dome in December is simple. Defend Belagavi calmly. Then turn, with the same energy, to the region that built the Soudha and is still waiting for its share.