Shiv Sena leader Arvind Sawant said in a press release, that the Centre has offered to set up the western zone office of the assistant commission for linguistic minorities in Mumbai, instead of re-establishing it at Belgaum in Karnataka.

The offer was made by Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to a Shiv Sena delegation, led by senior leader Sanjay Raut, which met him to protest the shifting of the office from Belgaum to Chennai.

Sawant told reporters that Naqvi made a proposal to locate the office in Mumbai and urged the Shiv Sena leaders to impress upon the Maharashtra government to provide space for the same.

He said the office of the assistant commissioner of linguistic minorities in Belgaum had provided succor to the linguistic minorities in Karnataka who had approached it with grievances. “In 1989 and 1992, the office had submitted a special report on linguistic minorities in Belgaum area to the central government,” Sawant said.

The Belgaum office was merged with the South Divisional in Chennai, he said.

“Does the government expect linguistic minorities from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Karnataka to travel all the way to Chennai to seek redressal of their grievances,” the Shiv Sena leader asked.

The office was originally located in Mumbai, but was shifted to Belgaum after the Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute flared up.

Besides Raut and Sawant, the Shiv Sena delegation comprised Lok Sabha members Vinayak Raut, Shrikant Shinde and party leaders from Kolhapur.

?(With PTI Inputs)