Stars of Belgaum: Atul Kulkarni

From Today I am starting a new feature Stars of Belgaum. This will include stars related to Belgaum from all fields. If you know anyone like that kindly email me and I will surely share the word with others.

Atul Kulkarni: Atul was born on September 10, 1965 in Belgaum. His father, a businessman and mother, a housewife were settled in Solapur where he was brought up and educated.
His first appearance on stage was in his school, Haribhai Devkaran High School, Solapur. In his first play as a child, he personified colour BLUE! His friends remember him as a very quiet and introvert student. Academically he was an average student. His parents were always worried about his performance in exams...and his future too...!
Atul preferred home rather than play grounds... books than sports! Atul was always found in his favourite corner of his house...Reading...
His parents sent him to Belgaum for Junior College. He appeared for the 12th standard board exam...TWICE!!
Still entered into an Engineering College in Pune... and appeared for the First Year exam...THRICE!!!
He quit engineering......came back to Solapur. Finally Atul entered the field where he always wanted to be...Arts! And he topped at the graduation level from D. A. V. College, Solapur!
While in college, he helped his father in his business and also worked in an insurance company for a while.
During his college days, he appeared in a comedy at a cultural gathering...and he realised what he wanted!Atul joined Natya Aradhana, an amateur theatre group from Solapur.
Natya Aradhana groomed Atul as an actor under the able stewardship of Dr. Waman Degaonkar. He worked at back stage for two years and then got a chance to act on the stage of Natya Aradhana. These years of serious theatre ignited his passion for theatre; especially acting...the bug had bit him!
The part time activity was insufficient to quench his thirst. He decided to take acting as his profession. Feeling the need for a formal training, he decided to enter into the premier institute in theatre training in India, National School of Drama, New Delhi. Atul passed out from NSD in 1995 and at the age of 30, he became a professional actor.
Since 1995, Atul has acted in 8 plays in 4 languages, 26 films in 6 languages and has won several awards, including Two National Awards. His few acclaimed films include Rang De Basanti, Khakee, Valu and many others.

Bam Bam Bhole

E-governance only on paper

Source: The Hindu Dated: 06-03-2008
Many government department websites are yet to be updated
Belgaum corporation website not updated for five months. Website does not have information on job scheme.
Karnataka takes pride in being the torchbearer of the information technology sector in the country.
But the initial enthusiasm about e-governance seems to be on the wane with the passage of time, thanks to the failure to update official websites. Many websites posted by the State Government have not been updated for long.
Under the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the Government had facilitated web services to its various departments, institutions and organisations by equipping them with computers and Internet facilities. The objective was to facilitate quick access to “information” to the people.
The citizens visiting the official portals are often disappointed to see them not updated. Uday Kinjwadekar, a computer expert who has posted his own blog to provide information on various aspects and events happening in Belgaum city and district.
A glaring example is found with official portals on Belgaum City Corporation and Belgaum Zilla Panchayat. It is more than five months since the civic elections were held (September 28, 2007). But the corporation website does not display names of any corporator. Today, it is more than 24 hours since the mayoral elections. Yet, there is no one in the corporation’s “Computer Room” to display the names of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and councillors. The “birth and death” section does not display any figure.
Interestingly, despite commencement of mayoral term since March 4, the corporation website continues to display the name of Deputy Commissioner M.E. Shivalingamurthy as Administrator of the civic body.
Although the State Assembly was dissolved three months ago, the names of Ramesh L. Kudachi, Abhaykumar Patil and Manohar Kinekar continue to be displayed as Vidhan Sabha members. The Belgaum district website providing information about the zilla panchayat is no different.
There is no information about the centrally sponsored National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which is being implemented in the district for the past one year.
The related page is blank. If some body wants to know about the “Projects Planned” and “Ongoing projects” in the zilla panchayat, the web pages continue to display “coming soon”. The last information about the Western Ghats Development Programme available refers to October 2001.
The other pages on various schemes and programmes have not been updated since 2003-04 and 2004-05. Mr. Kinjawadekar says hardly any government portal is found updated. While it is so important to be number one in the IT sector in the country, it is equally important for the government departments and organisations to update their websites. Otherwise, the objective of providing accurate and quick information to the citizen will be defeated, he said.

Belgaum gets its second Kannada-speaking Mayor

Source : The Hindu
SURPRISE WINNERS: Prashanta Shantinath Budavi (left) and Yunis B. Momin who were elected as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Belgaum respectively on Tuesday.
Belgaum: A Kannada-speaking candidate on Tuesday was elected Mayor of Belgaum, which is considered a stronghold of the Maharashtra Ekikarani Samiti (MES). The MES lost the Deputy Mayor’s post to an Urdu-speaking candidate.
Regional Commissioner, Amita Prasad, who officiated as Returning Officer, declared Prashanta Shantinath Budavi elected as Mayor and Yunis B. Momin elected as Deputy Mayor.
The post of Mayor was reserved for woman (general) and that of Deputy Mayor for “general”. Ms. Budavi and Mr. Momin polled 30 votes each as against 28 votes polled by MES candidates Neelima Paushe and Netaji Balu Mangutkar. The Kannada organisations and workers, who had all the reasons to celebrate the victory, had to be content with offering floral tributes to the statue of Rani Channamma at Channamma Circle, thanks to the prohibitory orders in force.
Ms. Budavi and Mr. Momin belong to Sarvabhashik Samvichar Vikas Vedike floated by a Kannada-Urdu speaking corporators with the help of a small breakaway group of MES led by the former Mayor Sambhaji Patil.
Belgaum MP Suresh C. Angadi, who did not vote in the past mayoral polls, yielded to pressure from the BJP leadership and Kananda groups and cast his vote in favour of the vedike candidates.
Thirty-seven-year-old Ms. Budavi hails from Kittur. She is the wife of Shantinath Budavi, City president of Kannada Rakshana Vedike. A home-maker, she represents Ward No.58 in the Council. Mr. Momin, 44, is a Science graduate and represents Ward No. 47 in the city.
However, Ms. Budavi is the second Kannada-speaking candidate to be elected Mayor. The first Kannada candidate who held the Mayor’s post was veteran Kannada leader Siddangouda Patil from June 30, 1991 to December 25, 1992.
The then Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government led by the former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh had yielded to pressure from Kannada organisations and on November 21, 2005 superseded the corporation Council headed by the then Mayor Vijay Pandurang More for taking a stand favouring merger of areas dominated by Marathi-speaking people in Belgaum with Maharashtra.
Ms. Budavi and Mr. Momin expressed their gratitude to SSVV members, their leader Sambhaji Patil and Mr. Angadi for their election.
The reservation for women has ensured 16 women being elected to the civic body in September 2007 polls. Ever since the formation of the corporation, four of the 19 Mayoral terms hitherto, were led by three women corporators. Vijayalakshmi Vishnu Chopde was the first woman Mayor who completed her term from February 15, 1996 to February 15, 1997.
Vandana Mohan Belgundkar was the only woman to have served two full mayoral terms in same Council from June 16, 2001 to June 19, 2002 and later again from September 3, 2004 to September 5, 2005. Neelima Chavhan was the third woman to head the Council from June 29, 2002 to June 29, 2003.
Also, five deputy mayoral terms were served by four women members — Kusuma Krishna Tapale (Mayor 24, 1990 to June 29, 1991), Gourabai Jaipal Londe (February 15, 1997 to March 30, 1998), Asma Tahsildar (April 17, 2000 to February 13, 2001) and Veena Kolkar (from June 16 to 19, 2001 and June 30, 2003 to September 3, 2004). Unity paid off
Mr. Angadi has attributed the victory of Kannada speaking candidate belonging to Sarvabhashik Samvichar Vikas Vedike as Mayor of the 58-member corporation to the vedike members who remained united until the end. He told The Hindu soon after the results of the Mayoral polls were declared here on Tuesday afternoon that the credit should go to all the corporators, including the Urdu and two Marathi-speaking corporators who were united under the banner of the vedike to create a history of sorts.
Nobody else could claim the success of the vedike candidates, he said. Kannada Rakshana Vedike’s office-bearer said that but Mr. Angadi’s vote, no body else in the city or district came forward to support the vedike.

Kannada Mayor after 26 years

Mrs.Prashanta Budvi is the new Mayor for Belgaum and Mr.Younis Momin is the Dy.Mayor.
After 26 years Kannada group has made it to the Mayors post and the king maker Shambhaji Patil played his cards correctly.

Urdu corporators fix trade at Rs 15 lakh

Even after assuring deputy mayor's post, the eight member Urdu speaking corporators of Belgaum City Corporation, have demanded Rs 15 lakh from Kannada group to stand in favour of them in the mayoral polls.However, the Kannada faction which was all prepared for the elections have agreed for the new demand with a condition of not to support the Urdu group in the elections to deputy mayor's post. Urdu group, according to sources, was expected to withdraw the demand to enjoy the deputy mayor's post.Kannada corporators are angry on former MLA Ramesh Kudachi and Deputy Speaker in Legislative Council Sachidanand Khot for not showing interest in the mayoral polls. The 11 member Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi was trying to dominate the 18 member Marathi speaking corporator group. Renu Killekar, Manda Balekundri, Neelima Pawase and Anita Kutre are in the race for mayor elections. MES, according to sources, has ‘auctioned' the mayor's seat for which the lowest ‘EDM' is Rs 10 lakh. Neelima is the favourate candidate as she, according to sources, is a successful ‘bidder'. The sum of EMD, except successful bidder, is refundable.MES may field Sambhaji Chavan for deputy mayor's post as he once was a strong contender of Sambhajirao Patil. Kannada aspirant candidates- Jyoti Bhavikatti, Shanta Uppar and Prashnata Budavi, according sources, have given Rs 6 lakh each to a senior corporator to make them first citizen of the city.
source: New Indian Express

Corporators come out of hibernation

Source: The NewIndian Express

Things getting hotter for the Post of Mayor

The election of the post of Mayor and Dy.Mayor will be held on 4th of March. It has been over 4 months the corporators have been elected but the city did not have a Mayor. The tug of war between Kannada group and Marathi group is on its acme. The best thing is the equation is 30-29 in favor of the Kannada group. The urdu group is with the Kannada Group. The marathi group has been taken to somewhere in Konkan area so that there is no more infighting and divide.
If the situation goes as it is now a Kannada group mayor is certain this time I guess.

But in politics anything can happen. I will keep you all posted.

I feel I am in Maharashtra:Thanks to HESCOM

Common man budget

View on The budget by Chetan.Chougule B.COM A.C.A
It looks like P Chidambaram and Co is very much inspired by the “RobinHood” story. This year Government has a record tax collection even surpassing the budgeted estimates. The excess tax collection has totally been diverted to Farm Loan waiver of Rs. 60000 cr.
I don’t think farmers suicide rate will go down with this wavier. The same farmer will apply for fresh loan next year.
Exemption Limit.
Finance minister has taken a bold decision of increasing the tax emption limit and reducing the tax rates. I think this tax rate structure will prevail for the next 3 to 4 years. Individuals will have more money in their hand to spend or invest. But this tax cut may not be a good news for IT employees. The struggling sector due to US recession and Dollar will cut the salaries of the employees to the extent of benefit they get from this tax savings.
Education:
The increased allocation to Education sector is welcome. The strength of India is its
young generation. 50% of Indians are below 30 age. Education is of prime importance for nation building.
Increase in Short Term Capital Gain:
With the increase in Short Term capital gain on shares by 5% Investors may hold their shares for Mid Term to Long Term. But we may see a reduction in daily turnover in stock market which is not a good sign.
Corporate to Gain Nothing:
This years record tax collection is largely contributed by corporate sector. There are no reductions in FBT and corporate taxes in this budget. The reduction in Excise duty will be passed on to consumers.
In all it is a common man budget. Due to the American pressure on Nuclear Deal , if the deal go through we may see a early elections. With this budget it looks like Government is getting ready for early election.
Chetan.Chougule B.COM A.C.A

KEEPING A SECTION OF POPULATION HAPPY AT WHOSE COST

The union budget was presented by Mr.Chidambaram today. The views of various Charetred accountants and Stock market investors of Belgaum is here below:
Mr.Nitin Nimbalkar (Investor)
KEEPING A SECTION OF POPULATION HAPPY AT WHOSE COST
The finance minister rose to the occasion and delivered a budget, which vowed a large section of the society with the intention of nothing, more than a vote.
The minister was more of a politician today rather that a economist.
The same thing happened today sincere and faithful farmers had to sacrifice and the one who were not that sincere got the benefit. I don’t say that all the farmers who don’t pay are not sincere but 75% of the farmers are capable of paying back.
This is giving a very wrong signal to the sincere farmers, friends be rest assured that the government will have to shell out a lot more in years to come because of the mindset of the farmers.
By increasing the exemption limit the minister has helped the Income tax department of the hardship of handling unwanted stationery.
By reducing the Bank transaction tax the minister has reduced the complexity in cash dealings, this will definitely bring in more liquidity in day today Bussiness.

Regarding customs and excise he did good job by neutralizing what he shelled out in the individual tax collections.
Because of depreciating dollar he did not reduce the peak customs duty.
Service tax limit hike will help a lot of people.
All in all I feel that the finance minister has intelligently used the surplus of tax collections of last year to give away the sops to the individuals be it a farmer , a businessman or a salaried employee.
He has clearly ignored the near future in trying to buy out the votes.
Because friends if next year if Mr. Chidambaram rises to present the budget (if UPA Govt returns to power) Be rest assured that it will be a completely different Ride.
So friends enjoy the year 2008-2009 this might be a peace before a storm…. so enjoy……..
Mr.Nitin Nimbalkar is my blog Financial Editor.

Jodha Akbar Row in Belgaum Also

Marching ahead: Activists of Sri Shiv Pratishthan taking out a procession in Belgaum on Thursday in protest against the alleged assault by the police on their leader Sambhajirao Bhide in Sangli on Wednesday.
The Jodha Akbar Show in Nartaki was cancelled.
Source: The Hindu

Belgaum gets NOTHING

The Rail budget presented by Lalu Prasad as every time has nothing for us Belgaumites. All those demands made by the Belgaum Chambers and others have gone on deaf ears. What we got from the budget is here.

Mrashtra's Belgaum bid futile: Centre

Source: Deccan Herald
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that Maharashtra has been fighting a futile legal battle demanding the annexation of 814 villages in Belgaum, Karwar, Bidar and Gulbarga districts of Karnataka, which have significant Marathi-speaking people.
“It is neither feasible nor desirable to demarcate the borders of villages, taluks and districts in a manner that the people speaking one language can or may be retained in one state only. Such a solution has severe practical problems and severe consequences, which have been succinctly laid out by States’ Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in its report,” said an affidavit by the Director of the Union Home Ministry, which is in the possession of Deccan Herald. However, copies of the affidavit are yet to be provided to the parties.The document, prepared by then Solicitor-General Golam E Vahanvati and filed on November 16, 2006, said, “It is submitted that in the process of reorganisation, a certain minimum amount of linguistic overlap is to be expected along the border.”Linguistic homogeneity as a concept is beset with practical problems, espe-cially in the case of a multi-lingual country like India, as discussed in SRC report.
In another affidavit prepared on August 23, 2006 but not filed following public outcry in Maharashtra, the Centre had urged the apex court to “dispose of the suit” filed by the Maharashtra government in 2004.With a piece of advice, the UPA government said boundary disputes in any multi-lingual country are best resolved with the mutual consent or agreement of the states concerned arrived at through amicable negotiations, which the Centre is committed to facilitate.The Centre said: “The various insinuations and allegations by Maharashtra are not admitted.”It justified the findings in the report submitted on September 3, 1967 by Mehr Chand Mahajan, the chairman of the commission constituted to resolve the border dispute between the two states, and said the matter was settled 41 years back. The next hearing of the case has been scheduled for March 26. The previous hearing in January third week was adjourned after Maharashtra which was to file its reply on the day did not do so.

Foundries in Crisis

The Belgaum Chapter (Southern Region) of The Institute of Indian Foundrymen (IIF) has said there is a likely threat of closing down the foundry units in Belgaum and the neighbouring Kolhapur district in Maharashtra for a fortnight “to avoid heavy losses” because of the rising prices of raw materials.
Members of the IIF marched to the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Saturday to draw the attention of the Government towards the “crisis” confronting the sector in the country owing to the increasing prices of raw materials.
The procession was led by chairman of the IIF’s Belgaum Chapter Ram Bhandare.
In a memorandum addressed to the Joint Director of the District Industries Centre, the IIF said the foundry sector was supporting engineering exports and domestic market.
It was the fourth largest producer of castings in the world. The sector was poised to become one of the top three producers of castings in the world by 2010, as it was witnessing an export growth rate of 15 per cent every year, the memorandum said. Exports during the year 2006-07 accounted for Rs. 4,000 crore and it was expected to touch Rs. 6,000-crore mark by 2010, it said.
Belgaum tops the State in the sector with production of one lakh tonne every year, Mr. Bhandare said. By 2010, the production would touch 1.60 lakh tonne a year and exports would increase from the present Rs. 100 crore to Rs. 300 crore by then, he said. This sector had provided employment to nearly 10,000 people and another 5,000 people were expected to get employment by 2010, he said. The revenue generation was also expected to grow from the present Rs. 500 crore to Rs. 800 crore during the next three years.
But, the sector was facing a crisis of sorts owing to rising prices of pig iron, steel, coke and scrap, he said and added that the prices of these materials were increasing every month and sometimes every fortnight.
To tide over the crisis, the IIF wants the Government to ban or exercise effective control on export of iron ore by imposing heavy duty which will help in better realisation for exports of steel/casting. The practice of increasing prices of raw materials every month should be stopped immediately and import duty on coking coal/coke should be abolished to bring down the prices, it said.