This is bad news for Belgaumites. For the past couple of years, assembly session in Belgaum was a boon to the city (some parts) by which the roads were re built, street lightening repaired and also some other beautification works of the city had taken place.

This time CM, Yedurappa had had first sighted to hold the session in Belgaum but with revolt from the administration and the opposition he has finally called it off. The chief minister disclosed that the cabinet had decided to convene the session for fifteen days in Bangalore instead of Belgaum as a session in Belgaum could affect the academic calendar.

At the previous sessions held CM had promised that one session in the New Year would be held at Belgaum. This time it will be a miss. The Suvarna Vidhan Soudha is under construction and now the ground leveling work is in progress 24by7 and the new Soudha should be ready in another 18 months and only then we could have the session here in Belgaum.

As it is written at the Vidhan soudha in Bangalore: “Government work is God’s work” we can expect the building to be ready in 2 years and till then also for a assembly session in town.

Should I say the party (festivity) is over or at last it’s over, leave it to you?

Party I am talking about is the Assembly session; it was a party for the MLA’s and MLC’s. They came they ate, they spoke about everything other than what was meant and they went back.

Now that the party is over (assembly session) all the hype of the session is over. A few roads were made over which was a good thing for the city, some high mast street lamps another good sign. Some pavements remade which if last for a while can see commuters walk over them.

There were no power cuts in the city for the past 10 days or so. It was a welcome relief but even before we could breathe the power minister has already stated that the scheduled power cuts of 4 hours will begin from Tuesday.

The fate of the plants (rather I say tress) in the divider of various roads is not known. They were watered till yesterday and from now on who is their god father is to be seen. Similar trees planted during the 2006 session were removed as they never grew and new plants were put in the same holes and we could expect the same to happen the next year, as I won’t think the new Suvarna soudha would be ready by next year.

The Hoteliers will feel awful as they were working to full occupancy for these 10 days, even the smallest of smallest hotel was fully occupied. The sweet shops must have minted a few more rupees when everyone going back home must have taken some sweet from here, normally Kunda or Kardant. A few who knew about Belgaum sarees were seen in Shahpur buying the same.

The government will say that the session was highly successful and this was the first step towards the development of north Karnataka, the opposition otherwise. But we have to think over what really happened. A few bills were passed in which nothing was there for Belgaum or north Karnataka. The assembly session was held to have discussion about the development of North Karnataka but in reality nothing converged. The whole session was superseded by the illegal mining issue and that issue too was left half way saying it will be discussed in detail at the budget session in Bangalore.

Various memorandums were presented to the CM and he readily accepted it. The Belgaum corporation new building was opened in a hurry and such other things were done in a hurry.

The finances of the state govt are in dire state. There is huge under recovery of taxes as it was mentioned in the assembly session due to the economic slowdown, but nothing encouraging was discussed about it either.

The BJP government took a politically immature decision under pressure from Kannada organizations. The MES has lost its base and far away from any immediate recovery. But, K-organizations want to encash only to boost its bargaining power with political parties in the elections. Raj Thakery is suffering from identity crisis and in hurry to do something in a highly fanatic manner, even though some of the issues raised by him are genuine which are not restricted to Maharashtra alone but also in other states of India, including Karnataka. But his style of thinking is political aimed at vote bank.

This time the border issue also saw a rebirth and violence after many years. This time the timing for the border issue was right I guess. Elections are due in next couple of months and all parties want to have one issue. Raj Thakrey’s MNS has stealed the Marathi Manoos issue from the Shiv Sena and hence this time The Shiv sena caught up with the Border issue. Other parties were not be left behind like the NCP and the Congress and the BJP stating that Belgaum should be made into a union territory.

Here in Karnataka there was violence all over and agitations against the MES. But thank fully nothing turned out bad in Belgaum. It was far from Belgaum. But the after effects are still being seen as the interstate bus services are still affected after a few of them were burnt by both sides.

Now you might say what all rubbish this Uday is writing all negative only. But I began to write this post with some positives of this session for Belgaum, didn’t I. Good roads, No power cuts, some basic infrastructure development on a small scale.

It’s all up to you the common man to rethink what has been achieved, I am not against the assembly session being held here, I am for it, but the purpose for which it had been called for has not been achieved and that is my only blubber.

 This is what is promised for Belgaum:

Development of a botanical park at the Vaccine Depot at a cost of Rs. 5 crore for which a master plan would be prepared, improving and extending the sewerage system at a cost of Rs. 120 crore, a 35-km ring road at a cost of Rs. 150 crore and a sum of Rs. 5 crore to be released for land acquisition

The KIADB would establish a foundry cluster on 500 acres of land near Machche village. A 3-km road linking National Highway No. 4 to the Kanabargi Auto Park would be laid by the KIADB.