MUMBAI: Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan, while addressing the joint session of the state legislature on Monday, stated that the government is committed to resolving the decades-old Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute by taking resolute steps in the country's apex court. 

The border dispute, which has simmered in the background for a long time, flared up again a few days ago after a bus conductor from Karnataka was allegedly assaulted in Belagavi for not speaking to a couple of students in Marathi. Both states halted bus operations, and the issue was also raised at the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Delhi. 

A conductor from Maharashtra was attacked, and his face was blackened in Chitradurga on Saturday, escalating the row once again. Before that, the border dispute had flared up in 2022 when then-CM Eknath Shinde held a meeting in Mumbai to review the status of the border dispute and announced that freedom fighters in Belagavi and other Marathi-speaking areas in Karnataka would be eligible for pensions and free medical care under the Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Scheme.

Governor Radhakrishnan also reiterated the government’s commitment to resolving the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute by taking decisive steps in the country’s apex court. 

Further in his speech, the governor mentioned that the Rs 86,300 crore Nagpur-Goa Shaktipeeth Superexpressway would be revived, following the lines of the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Corridor. Land acquisition for the Superexpressway had been stalled a few months before the assembly elections after farmers in the Sangli-Solapur belt opposed it.

In his speech, the governor also highlighted the priority the state government places on development, with a significant emphasis on employment generation. “The government signed MOUs worth Rs 15.72 lakh crore at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which will generate 15 lakh jobs in the next few years,” he said. He added that through the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), the state has decided to allot industrial plots of approximately 3,500 acres to support industrialization, recognizing the growing demand for industrial land.