Corporators party in BCC office

The office of the Belgaum City Corporation (BCC) was a make shift bar cum restaurant on Sunday. All the elected and nominated corporators, including the Mayor were present and took pleasure in the party organized at the BCC premises.

 According to reliable sources, the party was organised by Corporator Sanjeev Prabhu for getting elected as the Chairman of Standing Committee.

A corporator, who attended the party, said that they had availed permission from the Mayor and BCC Commissioner for holding the party. He also said that no liquor was served in the party. However the scene was different.  A class-IV employee, who attended the party, confirmed that liquor had been served to the invitees. 

BCC Commissioner S G Patil, he said that the corporators had taken his permission for conducting an official meeting along with lunch at the office premises.

“The meeting was expected to continue till late evening,” he said. But Patil denied giving permission to any party to be organised at the BCC office premises. 

What can we say to these corporators who we got elected? Nothing can happen as it was a official meeting with lunch. Town has seen many cases of Chiken Gunia and Dengue and the corporation is denying that there is any breakout of both diseases. But the truth is otherwise. Many have been affected by these and the corporation is still waiting for a couple of persons to die and then their eye may open.

There have been only 2 heavy rains so far, and water logging was seen in all parts of the city and also places like Chennamma circle there was water logging, so imagine the work done by BCC. All elected members should have a responsibility and if they don’t adhere to it there should be some mechanism to call them back. 

God save Belgaum.

 Source: Express Buzz

Saffron flag controversy is gaining ground Aage Kua Piche Khayi

MP Suresh Angadi and MLA Sanjay Patil are now on the back foot as there are protests by the KRV. Angadi told The Hindu, and I quote “I will support it even if the KRV is ready to hoist a saffron flag, which has been and continues to be the symbol of our national pride since the times of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, The saffron flag symbolizes Hinduism and not the Kannada or Marathi linguistic community, as is being misunderstood by a few.”
The issue was deliberately raked up to project the BJP as “anti-Karnataka” during election time.The KRV ransacked the official chamber of Sanjay Patil, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, which is housed in Belgaum taluk panchayat office here on Tuesday.

On the other side another faction of the KRV attacked the office Suresh Angadi which is situated in the Cada office.

The KRV is demanding the withdrawal of the nomination of Angadi for the elections as they are supporting the hoisting of the saffron flag.

In another development on the same issue the District administration submitted its report to the chief election officer of the state on the roles played by the MP and MLA in the protest done by MES, however no notice of violation of code of conduct has been issued.

Its worst times for BJP now, “Aage Kua Piche Khayi”. If the Angadi supports the MES on the issue he can be in the race to get some Marathi votes, otherwise which is not very likely this time. People say, these politicians come when they want votes and this a just another example to it. The KRV is against Angadi’s support to MES saffron flag, so they are asking people not to vote for him. So where does the MP go “Aage Kua Piche Khayi”.

This time the Belgaum loksabha election could give some surprises, still the other candidate lists are not out so we just have to imagine but, for these years the Marathi-Kannada issue was never a issue of great importance during the Loksabha elections. Yes, for the assembly elections it is the only issue.

There has been no much disturbance after the delimitation of the constituencies. Belgaum Loksabha seat is made up of Arabhavi, Gokak, Belgaum Uttar, Belgaum Dakshin, Belgaum Rural, Bailhongal, Saundatti Yellamma and Ramdurg.

So be glued to the election fever the congress candidate names should be out in a day or two and other names also as the nomination process starts in the last week of March.

Source: The Hindu

Flag code violated by BCC officials? Mayoral Poll on March 30

Elections are near: BJP now plays Marathi card on saffron flag issue

List of Mayors of Belgaum from 1984 to 2004: Sambhaji Patil only Mayor in country to be elected 4 times

Belgaum City Corporation is in news always for wrong reasons. But I have some amazing information for you.
 History was created with Sambhaji Patil becoming the only person in the country to be elected Mayor of a city for the fourth time in 2003. I tried to search if someone has broken his record, but I could not find it.

 

 

 See the list of mayors from 1984 onwards, Vandana Belgundkar was elected Mayor on 2 occasions and Belgaum has seen 5 female mayors.

Belgaum Mayor	From	To
Subhash Jadhav	12-01-1984	1-01-1985
Maloji Ashtekar	12-01-1985	11-01-1986
Sharad R Joshi	12-01-1986	11-01-1987
Nagesh Sateri	12-01-1987	11-01-1988
Nagendra Haibatti	12-01-1988	31-12-1988
Sambhaji Patil	25-04-1990	29-06-1991
Siddangouda Patil	30-06-1991	25-12-1992
Sambhaji Patil	26-12-1992	28-12-1993
Ramesh Kudachi	29-12-1993	01-05-1995
Vijaylaxmi Chopde	15-12-1996	15-02-1997
Govind Raut	15-12-1997	30-03-1998
Appasaheb Pujari	30-03-1998	30-03-1999
Sambhaji Patil	30-03-1999	17-04-2000
Shivaji Sunthkar	17-04-2000	13-02-2001
Vandana Belgundkar	16-06-2001	296-06-2002
Nilima Chavan	29-06-2002	30-06-2003
Sambhaji Patil	30-06-2003	03-09-2004
Vandana Belgundkar	03-09-2004	05-09-2005
Vijay More	05-09-2005	27-11-2005
Prashanta Budavi	04-03-2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the Current Members of the Corporation.

MES stages agitation near corporation building

The MES is staging a agitation near the new office of the Belgaum Corporation to hoist the Saffron flag atop the new building.
About 15 MES activists have been arrested, sources told. There is a notable police presence near the new premises.
The KRV is also protesting for the Kannada Flag be hoisted on the new building.

On some channels its being shown as there is tension in the city, but I don’t guess anything of that nature is happening as of now.

Saffron Flag comes down for the last time

The Saffron flag atop the old Belgaum city corporation (BCC) building came down for the last time never to be hoisted again.

From today the BCC will function from the new premises near the SP office. Only the national flag will be hoisted there.

So form today all the work from birth, death certificates to building permissions and property extract you will need to go to the new premises near the SP office.

There is no direct city bus to the new premises, citizens will have to get down at Kolhapur Cross or RTO circle and walk all the way to the corporation office.

At the moment there are not many shops like photocopying there but with time all will come up there.

Today there is the hearing of the Case field by corporator on the Mayor and the other officials in regards to the postponement of the Mayoral poll.

SPECIAL BUDGET GRANT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF Belgaum

The Belgaum city corporation has invited tenders for various development works in Belgaum under the special grant from the State government.

The works include roads, UGD, Central Lighting works etc in Belgaum city. The works include very many roads of the city mainly roads that were not touched up during the Assembly session and those covered here again are for other works such as dividers and street lights.

See the complete Tender here.

The total cost of tenders is a whopping 9317.627 Lakhs. (This figure was gained after adding all the 31 packages)
The time limit for all the works is 9 months.
Last date for submitting application for tender forms document is 12-02-2009
Opening of Technical Bids by the Commissioner, Corporation of the City of Belgaum is on
02-03-2009 at 11.30 am or any other date will be intimated later.

I request all to go to the link above of the tender and see what kind of development work is planned for your area.

Belgaum Corporation failed to utilize funds

Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa has expressed displeasure over the “failure” of city corporations to utilize funds released under the Special Development Plan announced by the Government in the budget proposals for 2008-09.

The Government had announced Rs.100 crore in this financial year another 50 crore in the next year, but the Belgaum Corporation had failed to utilize the said funds. In fact the CM said that the BCC should have asked us for more funds.

Source: The Hindu

Belgaum City Corporation to get a new building today

The new building of the Belgaum city corporation would be inaugurated today. All this is being done in a hurry as they want the CM to open the same.

The new building built next to the SP’s office in Malmaruti Extension is all ready for today. It has a big central hall ample parking space.

The building was constructed at a cost of Rs.9 crores 15 lakhs. The Marathi comparators have boycotted the event as the invitation letter was only in Kannada.

Water Tariff hiked for 24x7 wards

Civic bodies fail to use funds: but don’t fail to go on tours: Belgaum

The government had announced Rs 100 crore in the Budget for each of the city corporations, including Hubli-Dharwad, Mangalore, Mysore, Gulbarga, Belgaum, Davanagere and Bellary.
No one other than the Bangalore Bruhat Mahanagara Palike has shown their interest in utilizing these funds.
It’s almost end of December, none of these corporations have spent a single paisa yet. This attitude of the local bodies is being attributed to a combination of official apathy and the elected representatives’ lack of interest in preparing an action plan, as the guidelines made it compulsory to start permanent work instead of repairs.
The government had directed the civic bodies to utilize the funds for creation of infrastructure like roads, tanks, sewerage and drinking water facilities.
Even if now these local bodies plan to spend it, not more than Rs.50 cores can be spent.
Some of these civic bodies have not even prepared an action plan to spend the Rs 17 crore released in the first installment, the officer said. Sources said that Bellary and Hubli-Dharwad City Corporations have prepared an action plan for about Rs 60-65 crore.
After continuous pressure from the top, civic bodies of Mysore, Mangalore and Davanagere have promised to prepare an action plan for Rs 36 crore, Rs 25 crore and Rs 50 crore respectively. Gulbarga and Belgaum, however, have not even proposed to prepare such an action plan.
Our City corporation Mayor and other authorities only want to tour, give a momento to the CM and ask for more funds for development. They don’t want to make use of the funds already allotted to them. Rs.100 crores for a year is huge amount and if a plan was made and the money had been utilized, maybe there would have been some good roads.
As the Belgaum Corporation has no plans made the money Rs.100 crore will go back to the State govt. as un utilized. This is a very nice example of the working of the local civic bodies. Why nothing concrete was planned has to be seen.
Source: ExpressBuzz

Belgaum City Corporations online Public Grievance Redressal System

Belgaum City Corporations online Public Grievance Redressal System

The Belgaum city corporation website http://www.belgaumcity.gov.in/ has a Grievance section.
You can file an online complaint and you get a complaint number & you can check the status of the complaint online.

Mr.Gangadhar Patil, this blogs RTI editor had filed a complaint about the AD board on the Nucleus mall in Bogarves. He is supposed to get an answer by today.

Snapshot of complaint made

Only the file online complaint link is working. View Complaint Reports links does not open.

Hope the complaint made online are heard to or it will just another way to complain.

Belgaum corporation meeting ends abruptly

Agenda passed without discussion; Mayor walks out
Opposition members put Mayor in an embarrassing position
People feel sorry at their representatives’ behaviour

Wednesday’s meeting of the Belgaum City Corporation, which witnessed pandemonium on several occasions, was abruptly adjourned as it happened the last time on June 21.

However, the meeting concluded with one of the corporators belonging to the ruling group announcing that the House had passed the day’s agenda without any discussion, leaving the entire Opposition in a state of shock and confusion.

Mayor Prashanta K. Budavi and ruling group members walked out of the Council Hall immediately thereafter.
Opposition leaders Balasab Kakatkar, Kiran Sayanak and Dhanraj Gauli reacted sharply to the “undemocratic” style of functioning and said they were in shock and confused. This is not the way the ruling group should function, Mr. Gauli said.

The meeting took off on a stormy note with the Opposition Marathi group questioning the volte-face by the Mayor on her decision taken at the last meeting that she would not convene a council meeting till the Government transferred Commissioner P.A. Meghannavar.

The Opposition also demanded that the Mayor explain her stand on the issue in view of the ruling group describing the Mayor’s decision as “personal”.
In the last meeting, Ms. Budavi had expressed helplessness over the alleged non-cooperative attitude of Mr. Meghannavar and his interference in the Mayor’s responsibilities by bringing in certain issues on the agenda without her notice and announced that the Government would be requested to transfer him. She had also declared that she would not convene a meeting till Mr. Meghannavar was transferred. Her decision had been recorded in the proceedings of the meeting.

When the ruling benches defended the Mayor saying that the contents in the proceedings were personal and asked the Opposition to ignore the matter and allow the meeting to take up issues confronting the people, the Opposition demanded that the Mayor explain whether she corroborated the views of the ruling group members and put her in an embarrassing position.
However, giving in to the Opposition’s demand and in view of the weak defence put up by the ruling benches in the absence of their group leader Sambhaji Patil, Ms. Budavi announced that she would withdraw her remarks on Mr. Meghannavar and pleaded with the Opposition that they should allow the meeting to take up the matters slated in the agenda.

Yet, the Opposition harped on the same issue even after the Mayor repeated her request five times. And, all the while they said that they were not against the development of the city.
The Opposition members also demanded that the Mayor explain her stand in Marathi. This, despite Ms. Budavi’s repeated submission that she could not speak Marathi though she understood the language.

Even the requests made by two MLAs, Feroz Sait (Congress) and Abhay Kumar Patil (BJP), that linguistic differences should not be brought into picture and that they should concentrate on development issues failed to make any impact on the Opposition members. As the arguments and counter arguments continued in the post-lunch session and what was later clarified to media persons that it was “slip of the tongue” on the part of Ms. Budavi to say that she would speak in Kannada as she was a “Kannadiga Mayor”, the Marathi group wasted no moment in entering the well of the House and staging a dharna in protest against such a “partisan behaviour” of the Mayor.

Left with no way out, the ruling group member, Parshuram Dhage, suddenly flashed a copy of the agenda for the day and declared that all of the issues in it had been passed.
With that the Mayor and the ruling group corporators walked out of the meeting hall, which apparently was a post-lunch strategy to save the situation from turning worse.
However, many in the gallery meant for the public felt sorry at the behaviour of their elected representatives who had no time to discuss the people’s problems and development of the city even when Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had offered to develop Belgaum into a “model city”.
Those who spoke on behalf of the ruling group included N.B. Nirwani, Rajan Hulbatte, Deepak Waghela and Feroz Darga.