Record Dharna for 706 days at Belgaum

Office of Deputy Commissioner, Belgaum is a place where from all lifestyles come and protest to get himself or herself justice. Three dharnas at the same office have created record of sorts for the longest dharna may be in Belgaum for sure.

 The dharna by a family of six enters its 706th day; families displaced by the Hidkal dam construction have completed 565 days and the Safai Mazdoor Sangh 469 days.

 A family from Sarwad of Bijapur has been waiting for justice 706 days in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Belgaum. He was allegedly driven out of his village by upper castes who had set fire to his shop and seized his property as well as murdered a relative. The other 565-day old dharna is being staged in another makeshift tent by the 119 families displaced during the construction of Hidkal dam ago who are unhappy with the alternative houses allotted to them.

Source: Deccan Chronicle

1996 Belgaum parliamentary constituency voting was postponed by a month

The Belgaum parliamentary constituency, where polling had to be postponed by a month in 1996 due to a record number of independent candidates, 452 and a total of 463.

The huge number of Independents was part of a political strategy planned by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, which has been fighting since 1956 to get the Marathi-speaking border area merged with Maharashtra, it aimed at attracting the attention of the whole nation to the controversy. Over 400 activists had entered the fray. All of them lost deposits, but polled around 25 per cent votes, upsetting political calculations as also the Election Commission, which had to print extra-long ballot papers to accommodate them.

For the 1996 general election, Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh crossed all earlier records with 480 candidates in the fray.
After this incident the Election commission increased the security deposit and also some norms for nomination.

Kunda Nagri saw record sales of Kunda! What a sweet!dea Sir je

The sweet shops in Kunda Nagri, Belgaum made record breaking sales in these times of recession. They made whopping sales of roughly 6000 kgs of Kunda alone during the 9 day session period. During the last session in 2006 hardly 2000 kgs were sold.

According to the figures given by the Belgaum Kunda manufactures association, the sweet shop owners have roughly sold kunda worth over Rs 10 lakh, within a span of just eight days, provided they charge around Rs 150-200 per kg.

30% of the 6000 kgs of Kunda sold was Sugar free and new trend in sweets and also shows the health consciousness of the politicians or may be the after effects of Diabetes.

After kunda, kardant, another specialty of Belgaum (Gokak) made of jaggery, recorded extraordinary sales during the session.

This time prominent politicians had placed orders beforehand.
Source: TOI