CHIEF OF MAHARASHTRA STATE MEETS SONIA GANDHI, CHIEF OF INDIA'S FEDERAL RULING PARTY

From ANI

NATURAL WITH ENGLISH SPEECH

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SOURCE: ANI

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Chief of Maharashtra state meets Sonia Gandhi, chief of India's federal ruling party.

Ashok Chavan, chief of India's western Maharashtra state, meets Sonia Gandhi Chief of India's federal ruling party over disputed Belgaum area.

SHOWS:

NEW DELHI, INDIA (JULY 17, 2010) (ANI-NO ACCESS BBC)

1. MINISTERS ARRIVING IN CARS

2. ASHOK CHAVAN STANDING WITH OTHER MINISTERS

3. SECURITY PERSONNEL NEAR THE GATE

4. ASHOK CHAVAN WITH OTHER MINISTERS

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ASHOK CHAVAN, CHIEF MINISTER OF MAHARASHTRA, SAYING:"There are two issues, one is that the Karnataka government should refrain from taking any further decisions in the boundary effected area, 865 villages because the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra, the local Marathi people speaking is concerned. They are all disturbed, they are being depressed, they are being beaten up, they are being threatened. So, all these should be stopped immediately and that is why we said the NHRC, the National Human Rights Commission should be sent there to have a look to what is happening and a report should be taken."

6. MINISTERS GOING IN THEIR CARS

STORY: Ashok Chavan, chief of India's western Maharashtra state, meets Sonia Gandhi Chief of India's federal ruling Congress party over disputed Belgaum area on Saturday (July 17).

A delegation of Maharashtra Congress leaders led by Ashok Chavan, met party chief Sonia Gandhi and apprised her of the situation in Belgaum area which is involved in a border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Chavan said that they wanted a team appointed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to tour the disputed areas in Karnataka where to see the plight of Marathi-speaking people there.

"There are two issues, one is that the Karnataka government should refrain from taking any further decisions in the boundary effected area, 865 villages because the sentiments of the people Maharashtra, the local Marathi people speaking is concerned. They are all disturbed, they are being depressed, they are being beaten up, they are being threatened. So, all these should be stopped immediately and that is why we said the NHRC, the National Human Rights Commission should be sent there to have a look to what is happening and a report should be taken," said Ashok Chavan, chief of Maharashtra state.

The Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary row came to the limelight following the central government's affidavit in the Supreme Court a week ago that the disputed areas could not be made part of Maharashtra merely because a majority of the population there speaks Marathi.


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