The Karnataka government has decided to offer special grants to Kannada-medium schools in Maharashtra and also to provide pensions to Kannadigas in the neighbouring state who fought for the unification of the state. This was announced by Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday, November 22.

"Today our government has decided to give special grants for the development of Kannada-medium schools in Maharashtra through the Border Development Authority. Also, our government has decided to give pensions to those Kannadigas in Maharashtra who fought for the unification (of Karnataka), took part in the freedom struggle of India as well as Goa 'Vimochan' agitation after verifying all their documents," Bommai said, as per a report by PTI.

"We will implement this," he added and also said that protecting the interests of a large number of Kannadigas residing in Maharashtra is the duty of the state government. "I want to tell the Maharashtra Chief Minister and the government not to create a row between states when there are harmonious relations, when we are treating everyone equally irrespective of their language," Bommai stated further.

His statement comes a day after the Maharashtra government appointed two ministers to coordinate with the state's legal team on the decades-old border dispute court case between Maharashtra and Karnataka. It was Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who first announced a pension scheme for freedom fighters in Belagavi in Karnataka to which Maharashtra stakes claim to.

Shinde said that the benefits of the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY) would be extended to the people living in the disputed areas. Belagavi, bordering Maharashtra, has a significant population of Marathi-speaking people and is a bone of contention between the two states, as per PTI.