Territorial claims add fuel to fire in disputes

New Delhi : The quest for additional water resources to quench the thirst of their respective population and to irrigate farmlands has not been the only issue dividing Indian states; administrative boundaries themselves are now being questioned.

At least 12 such border disputes between states have been pending redressal by authorities for decades.

Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have been at loggerheads over some border villages while the tension between Haryana and Uttar Pradesh is palpable every harvesting season with both states claiming equal rights on a few villages.

The dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka is legendary, and so is the dispute between Punjab and Haryana. There are also disputes between Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, Orissa and Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya, besides Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

The most classic case is the dispute over Belgaum city. Despite the Mahajan Commission, set up by the federal government in 1966, giving its ruling, under which it transferred hundreds of villages from Maharashtra to Karnataka and from Karnataka to Maharashtra, Belgaum city remains with Karnataka.

Classic case

Marathi-dominated Belgaum became part of Bombay state after independence. The States Reorganisation Commission in 1956 awarded Belgaum to Mysore state, which is now called Karnataka. Maharashtra lodged a protest immediately thereafter, claiming that since the majority of the populace in Belgaum spoke Marathi, it has a legitimate right to the area. The Mahajan Commission has overruled that argument. The issue still flares from time to time.

The territorial dispute between Punjab and Haryana too is like a time bomb and has been threatening to vitiate the atmosphere for the past 43 years.

While Hindi-speaking areas of Punjab were given to Haryana when it came into being, the two states could not reach agreement over which would keep Chandigarh as its capital. The central government, unable to take a decision, made it the joint capital of the two states while and declared Chandigarh city as a Union Territory.

Three commissions have so far been appointed to determine additional areas from Punjab that can be given to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh going to Punjab but have failed to break the impasse.