The Belagavi district administration on Saturday closed and sealed four centres that were offering services related to ‘Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Janarogya Vima Yojna’ of the Maharashtra government in Belagavi city.
The scheme has been introduced by Maharashtra government exclusively for the Marathi speaking people residing in 865 border towns and villages of Karnataka. Copies of an undertaking declaring oneself as “Marathi speaking person” and recommendation letters from Maharashtra Ekikarana Samiti (MES) were reportedly being distributed at these centres.
District Health and Family Welfare officer Mahesh Koni told presspersons that based on the complaint filed by district action committee of Kannada organisations that the Maharashtra government was trying to “instigate Marathi-speaking persons of Karnataka” and had set up unauthorised centres, raids were conducted on Saturday.
“At all the four centres it was found that without any authorisation and permissions, these centres were providing service related to health insurance scheme of neighbouring State. We have closed and sealed all the four centres and issued show cause notices to those running them,” Dr. Kone said.
Kannada activists had alleged that at a time when the border row was still before the Supreme Court, the Maharashtra government had announced the scheme for the sake of fabricating documents to prove that Marathi-speaking people of Karnataka were in favour of Maharashtra.
