Will meet CM over border dispute

NCP chief Sharad Pawar is likely to meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday with a demand to appoint a lawyer in the Supreme Court who will take a firm stand on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute. A delegation of the Madhyawarti Ekikaran Samiti of Belgaum met Pawar in Kolhapur on Sunday. Deepak Dalvi of the samiti brought attention of Pawar towards the vacant post of the lawyer of Maharashtra to fight the case against the Karnataka government in the SC. “After death of two lawyer advocates, Maharashtra has not yet appointed any lawyer to put state’s stand in the court in boarder dispute case. Harsish Salve was appointed by the state, but he was absent to the hearing in the last week,” said Dalvi. He added as compare to Maharashtra, the Karnataka government has given prominent lawyers and they are arguing their stand strongly in the SC. Pawar assured them that he will meet Fadnavis with the members of the delegation and urge him to look into the matter and appoint a lawyer in SC. Maharashtra has claimed on the disputed area of Belgaum, Karwar – which is Marathi spoken area and demanding to merge it in Maharashtra. It was connected to Karnataka after bifurcation of the then Bombay state.