BELAGAVI, 24 JULY

A delegation of pro-Maharashtrian organisations, Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), on Thursday met Minister-in-charge of Belagavi, Satish Jarkiholi, at his residence in Gokak town of the State and submitted to him a memorandum appealing not to make Kannada mandatory in 865 disputed places in the State to which Maharashtra has claimed its right and also exempt the Marathi staff in the Belagavi City Corporation from learning the language.

Kannada Development Authority chairman, Purushotam Bilimale, had instructed the Urban Development Department to teach Kannada to the 2000 non-Kannadiga staff of the city corporation, as they did not know the language.

Bilimale instructed corporation commissioner Shubha B to make arrangements to provide professors to teach Kannada to the non-Kannadigas within two months.

The MES also urged Jarkiholi not to make mandatory the writing of business signboards in Kannada in disputed places in Karnataka. Providing 60 per cent of space to Kannada on business boards is mandatory.

Meanwhile, Kannada organisations claimed that though Akkalakot, Jat and Solapur in Maharashtra had many Kannadigas, only Marathi was used in business signboards there.