Mahajan Commission
Maharashtra leader Senapati Bapat resorted on hunger strike demanding the government to form a commission which would address border dispute. At Maharashtra's insistence, the Government of India constituted the Mahajan Commission on 25 October 1966. V.P. Naik, Maharashtra's Chief Minister at that time, announced in public on 9 November 1967 that Maharashtra will adhere to Mahajan Commission's report, regardless of the outcome. The commission was headed by the third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, Meher Chand Mahajan. The commission, upon review of Maharashtra's claims, recommended the exchange of several villages in Belgaum district between the two states, but rejected Maharashtra's claim on Belgaum city.
The Mahajan Commission received 2240 memoranda and interviewed 7572 people and submitted its report. Maharashtra had asked for 814 villages besides Belgaum. It was given 262 villages including Nippani, Khanapur and Nandgad. Mysore State had claimed 516 villages, of which Maharashtra admitted that 260 were Kannada-speaking ones. It was awarded 247 villages including claim to Solapur.
Read more about this topic: Belgaum Border Dispute
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