‘Use Belagaon’: Maha minister flags ‘Belagavi’ reference

Belagavi: Maharashtra industries minister Uday Samant on Monday said action would be taken against officials responsible for referring to the city as ‘Belagavi’ in his tour programme, reiterating his government’s stand against the name change and its preference for ‘Belagaon’.

Addressing a press conference during his visit, Samant termed the reference an “inadvertent mistake” and said accountability would be fixed. He stressed that he consistently used ‘Belagaon’ in his public remarks, reflecting what he described as the sentiment of Marathi-speaking people in the border region.

The state government officially renamed the city and district of Belgaum to Belagavi on November 1, 2014, as part of a broader initiative to align names with Kannada pronunciation across 12 cities and towns.

Samant, who was in Belagavi to attend a private event, said leaders of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) met him and sought a meeting with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde. He said that with the model code of conduct in force for MLC elections until June 22, the meeting would be arranged within 15 days after the polls.

In 2022, Union home minister Amit Shah chaired a high-level meeting in New Delhi with the chief ministers of Karnataka and Maharashtra to ease tensions over the border dispute. He had directed both states to form a six-member joint ministerial panel with three ministers each to discuss and resolve pending issues. However, Karnataka is yet to nominate its members. Responding to this, Samant said he would write to the Karnataka chief minister seeking time for a meeting to discuss the issue democratically.

Meanwhile, he thanked the Karnataka government for providing security during his visit.