Belgaum Border Dispute - 1980s and 1990s

1980s and 1990s

The first Belgaum City Corporation (BCC) elections were held in December 1983. The MES-dominated BCC made demands for transfer of Belgaum to Maharashtra in 1990, 1996 and 2001. More than 250 MES-dominated gram and taluk panchayats, and some other municipalities (such as neighbouring Khanapur) passed similar resolutions. In 1986 violence on the issue lead to large-scale arson and nine deaths in Belgaum.

During H.D. Deve Gowda's tenure as Chief Minister of Karnataka (1994–96), Karnataka organisation called Kannada Cheluvarigara Sangha submitted a memorandum to the Karnataka Government, asking it to set up of large industries so that 20,000 to 30,000 people would get employment.

The pro-Marathi groups protested against the Government notices and records not being translated in Marathi. The Officials Language Act, 1963 and 1981, states that "areas where the linguistic minorities constitute 15 per cent or more of the local population arrangements have to be made to translate government circulars, orders, extracts and land records into the minority language". In a letter (DO No RB Kannada CR 09/2000-01), Belgaum's Deputy Commissioner, Shalini Rajneesh reasoned that while suitable instructions had been given to the local authorities for the translation of documents into Marathi, it did not happened because the staff was "overloaded with the basic work to be carried out in the official language, that is, Kannada".