Literary body chief flays police action in Yellur

KOLHAPUR: Madhavi Vaidya, chief of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mandal, on Wednesday condemned the action of the Belgaum police against the villagers of Yellur. Vaidya also demanded that the disputed area comprising several villages should be declared as Union Territory.
On July 25, a signboard with 'Yellur, Maharashtra State' written on it had come up at the entrance to Yellur village in Belgaum district of Karnataka.The Belgaum police removed the signboard, but several similar boards had come up the next day.
The district administration had asked the police to remove the signboards, which resulted in a scuffle between the police and the villagers and, later, a lathicharge on the villagers.
Representatives of Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Sammelan, Akhil Bharatiya Natya Parishad, Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad-Belgaum, Natya Parishad Belgaum and Akhil Bharatiya Balkumar Sahitya Sammelan were present at the conference on Wednesday and have condemned the attack on the villagers.
She wondered over the silence of authors and people from various sectors of art about the Yellur incident.
Vaidya said, "It is saddening that a linguistic community had to struggle for 60 years to solve a border dispute. The Marathi people living in the disputed area have said that they want to be part of the Maharashtra state. Many of them do not understand Kannada language, and no official document is available in Marathi language in the disputed areas."
The Mahamandal has opened its branch in Karnataka and will continue to support the villagers, Vaidya said.
Ashok Yalagi, senior representative of the Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad-Belgaum, said that they were constantly confronting the Belgaum and Karnataka administrations for their rights. "We expect our sympathizers to continue their support in our long struggle."