Don’t change Suvarna Vidhana Soudha site

Source The Hindu
Activists of various Kannada organisations staged a “rasta roko” at Rani Channamma Circle here on Thursday, in protest against the decision to find an alternative site for the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belgaum.
They also objected to “volte-face” by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on according second capital tag to Belgaum city as promised by the previous Janata Dal(Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party Government.

Power plays truant

Source The Hindu
Many could not watch the live telecast of budget presentation
Many farmers could not watch the live telecast of the budget presentation made by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday, owing to scheduled and unscheduled loadshedding in urban and rural areas.
There was no power supply for a major part of the day in several villages in Belgaum taluk and city, including border villages of Hindalga and Sulga and such as Sahyadri Nagar, Hanuman Nagar and T.V. Centre. Power went off frequently and people could not watch the Budget presentation live on television.
Those who were waiting to watch BJP’s first budget were disappointed.
A farmer in Hindalga, Yeshwant Monappa Savgaonkar said he had read in newspapers that Mr. Yeddyurappa would be announcing some relief for farmers and hence he was curious to see the Budget presentation on television. But, there was no power supply.
On the promise to provide free power supply, he said that the Government should first ensure regular and quality power supply every day. “We have learnt to live without regular power supply for years and do not know for how many years this will go on.”
A majority of small and marginal farmers did not have Irrigation Pump sets and depended on rainfall for crops. Was there anything in the Budget for such farmers, he asked. Anandrama Gadakari of Sulga, who is a marginal farmer, said that the Governments had been making so many promises for alleviating poverty. But the fate of his family had not changed in the past six decades. He was unaware of the proposal on complete eradication of poverty. A resident of TV Centre said that the Hubli Electricity Supply Company should have ensured that there was no power cut on the day of budget presentation.
Without power supply, there was no meaning in television channels providing live coverage of the proceedings, he added.

Drought threat looms over Belgaum

Source The HinduThe threat of a fresh spell of drought looms large over Belgaum district, owing to erratic and insufficient rainfall.
If there is no rainfall for another fortnight, 94 villages in Athani and Ramdurg taluks may have to supplied water through tankers.
The district administration is gearing up to face any such eventuality and has directed officials to be take steps to tackle any crisis. Deputy Commissioner G. Ravishankar held a meeting with district-level officials on Wednesday.
According to official sources here on Thursday, the district administration’s immediate concern is to arrange drinking water supply in villages and fodder for cattle in the event of any natural calamity. A warning has been issued to ensure that locally available fodder is not transported to other States.
The district administration has decided to set up control rooms for the convenience of people in rural areas.
Poor rainfall has also affected sowing operations.
Srinagar, July 15: A trooper today committed suicide by shooting himself with his service rifle in Nagrota area of Jammu. “The soldier Mudassir (26) of Belgaum, Karnataka, was posted in 9 Madras at Nagrota,” sources said adding that he shot himself with his service rifle at around 9:15 AM and died on the spot. A court of inquiry has been ordered, they said.

Winter session to be held in Belguam in November

Legislative Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar said the winter session of the State legislature will be conducted in Belgaum either in November or December. The Government has not yet finalized schedule of holding the session in Belgaum, he said. The Kumaraswamy government had convened the first session of the State legislature in Belgaum in September 2006.

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.

Karnataka Budget 2008-09 What Belgaum Gets

Belgaum will get Rs.50 crores for infrastructure development. It will be the part of the Rs.700 Crores proposed for development of 7 cities.

Acquiring 370 acres of land will also expand the airport at Belgaum.

Proposed major industrial corridors with 8 lane roads are:
Bangalore-Belgaum via Davengare-Hubli

For the Vishva Kannada Sammelana to be held in Belgaum this year a sum of Rs.25 crores has been provided. A cell for providing information and support to non-resident Kannadigas will be set up in Bangalore (NRI Cell).

Preparations are being made to start Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belgaum and hold an assembly session.
The foundation stone for the construction of Suvarna Vidhana Soudha at Belgaum has been laid some time ago even though the work has not yet commenced. The work on this project will be accelerated this year utilizing an allocation of Rs.50 crores provided in the budget.


Financial assistance of Rs.One crores for development of Sangolli Rayanna Memorial at Belgaum.(This should be Nandgad 36 kms from Belgaum the place where he was hanged to tree)

For the development of second tier cities such as Mysore, Mangalore, Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad, Davanagere, Bellary and Gulbarga it is proposed to provide Rs.100 crores each to the municipal bodies of these cities over a period of two years. During this year, upto Rs.50 crores each will be given to these municipal bodies for specific projects.

A cement zone will be established for Belgaum and other districts.


Keeping in mind the natural and human resources in the State, six special industrial zones will be developed on the Public Private Partnership basis. A garment zone will be established in Belgaum For the above purposes Rs.500 Crores will be spent by KIADB during the year 2008-09.

An IT – BT zone will be established in Belgaum

A Suvarna Karnataka development corridor programme will be implemented throughout the length and breadth of the state for industrial development. For this purpose Rs.10 Crores will be allocated for preparing the project plans for the following corridors
Bangalore-Belgaum via Davengare-Hubli

It is proposed to set up IT and BT parks in cities like Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Shimoga, Davangere, Mangalore through joint ventures of private participation and Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board. KEONICS will be provided with a capital contribution of Rs.10 Crores to promote the above development.

In order to address the shortage of trained drivers for the heavy vehicles four training centers will be established, one each in the revenue divisions, at the cost of Rs. 5 Crores. Truck terminals will be established in Belgaum through public private partnership.
The number of Bangalore One centers will be increased from the present 34 to 75. Similar centers will be opened in Belgaum. (Bangalore One Centers are places where in you can pay all the Govt Taxes and other services under one roof.

e

QuEST to set up metal fabrication facility

QuEST, a leading provider of outsourced engineering services and manufacturing announced today that QuEST Manufacturing, its wholly owned subsidiary, is setting up a dedicated sheet metal fabrication facility for aerospace in its 300 acre Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Belgaum, Karnataka, India. This facility would in close proximity to machining and special processing and would support both engine and structural sheet metal forming. Phase-1 of this facility would consist of sheet metal cutting, brake forming, hydro forming / fluid forming, heat treatment for aluminum and assembly operations like riveting, etc. “Setting up of the sheet metal processing facility will enable QuEST and its current customers to graduate towards integrated sourcing and assemblies. It reiterates our commitment to setup an ecosystem for the supply chain catering to global aerospace industry requirement. Combined with the rest of our capabilities it positions us uniquely in the aerospace industry in India.” said Aravind Melligeri, Chairman & Co-founder, QuEST. QuEST has appointed Nicholas Belbin, as an advisory board member at QuEST Manufacturing to leverage his extensive experience in aerospace sheet metal processing. He has been instrumental in establishing FMS and computerized systems for various forming processes like brake forming, hydro-forming, hot forming etc. He has also written detailed specifications for forming and processing of sheet metal fabrication and assembly.QuEST is participating in the Farnborough International Airshow 2008 – UK, during which, it would be showcasing its end-to-end capabilities in aerospace engineering which include design and drafting/modeling, analysis/simulation, design automation, technical documentation, instrumentation and controls, electrical wiring/harness, avionics, embedded systems, manufacturing engineering, prototyping, in-house precision machining, sheet metal work and special processing. Load shedding in Belgaum

As the production of electricity has drastically reduced due to, the shortage of water in the dams and the demand has increased due to heat, HESCOM (Hubli Electricity Supply Company) has decided to cut 20% supply to the city.

Since the past few days, load shedding is on the city for about half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening but the timing is not fixed and there is no fixed schedule, which is causing problems to Belgaumites.

Belgaum gets the supply from the 220 KV Indal Station. This station requires about 120 Mega Watt but it is getting only 23 MW from Hubli and 60 MW from Tata Power which means a shortage of 37 MW. Load shedding is being done to cover this shortfall.

A detailed load shedding timetable is expected in a couple of days.

We never faced the problem this summer as there was plenty of rainfall from March to may. However, this monsoon we will have to face it.

However, we are better than other states like Maharashtra where there is 4 –5 hours of load shedding in town and about 12-14 hours in rural areas.

Jagriti Yatra’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib in Belgaum

Jagriti Yatra’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib in Belgaum


The “jagriti ratha yatra” organised to mark 300th year of consecration of Nanded-based Gurta Gadi of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, revered as the eternal guru by the Sikhs, entered Karnataka on Tuesday.
The ratha or the chariot carrying Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the holy weapons possessed by Sri Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last guru of Sikh community who fought injustice and tyranny, was accorded a warm welcome at Rani Channamma Circle in the city on its arrival from Sangli in Maharashtra.

The Sachkhand Gurudwara at Nanded had organised the tercentenary celebration of Gurta Gaddi, which is of great relevance to the Sikh community. The yatra is touring parts of the country with a view to spread the message of oneness and universal love as professed by Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

from all walks of life, who took a break to have a glimpse of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the holy weapons, offered flowers and received “Prasad” and sought blessings.
The “ratha yatra” proceeded to Goa later in the afternoon. On the occasion, the Sadh Sangat Gurudwara Committee of Beglaum had organised langar (Mahaprasad) at the Gurudwara in Tilakwadi.

JD(S) demands 'Second Capital status' to Belgaum

The Janata Dal (Secular) will launch an agitation if the BJP Government in Karnataka failed to confer 'Second State Capital' status to Belgaum as promised by the previous BJP-JD(S) coalition Government.

Addressing a press conference here today, State JD(S) Spokesperson Y S V Dutta said Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa should not fail to honour the commitment made to the people of Belgaum district when he was the Deputy Chief Minister. He said the decision to hold a special Assembly session in Belgaum was taken by former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and the State Government should take all measures to make it an annual affair.

He criticised the State Government's move to shift the construction site of the proposed 'Suvarna Soudha', a permanent venue for holding Assembly sessions in Belgaum, for which both Mr Kumaraswamy and Mr Yeddyurappa had laid the foundation stone last year.
Sourec UNI

Royston Gomes football begins 18 july

Vidhan Soudha at Halga or Khamkharhatti

MP Suresh Angadi yesterday said that the Vidhan Soudha be built near the highway and the decision of not building on the Vaccine Depot is the right one.

He further said that it be built in Halga or Khamkharhatti. He added building the Vidhan soudha in a densely populated area will cause more problems to the general public and also more traffic chaos on the already chaotic Khanapur Road.

Rakaskop reservoir has water for 3 months

As the rain have taken a rest and this time the rest has been too long the Rakaskop reservoir has water which will last for 3 months only. What after that is the question?

Rains this time came beforetime but then suddenly disappeared. This has been a cause of worry now. Last year by July 7 the reservoir was full to its capacity of 2475 feet. Infact this may the reservoir recorded its highest ever water level in that month of 2450.1 feet.

Now its all on the rain God.
Ye re Ye re Pausa Tula Deto Paisa …

Rs. 2,499-crore action plan prepared for Belgaum

Source The Hindu
Belgaum will be developed as a model city: Chief Minister

The Belgaum district administration has prepared a Rs. 2,499.70-crore action plan to take up various development works and provide better civic facilities.
The action plan comes in the wake of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s announcement to develop Belgaum as a “model city”.

According to the break-up, the district administration has proposed to spend Rs. 1,093 crore on road development/improvement works, including Rs. 58 crore on a fast-track corridor connecting four major roads of the city, and Rs. 250 crore on construction of hi-tech circles at the intersections of roads.

A sum of Rs. 90 crore would be spent on construction of 25 new gardens (in addition to the existing 22 gardens) in the city, developing sport and cultural centres and other facilities to meet entertainment and recreational needs of the people.
Another Rs. 18 crore would be spent on the underground drainage system, Rs. 333 crore on electrification, Rs. 235.45 crore on developing health facilities by increasing beds in the District Government Hospital to 1,000 and Rs. 183.25 crore on developing industrial areas around the city.
The Chief Minister, who interacted with representatives of various social organisations and those representing industry here on Saturday, sought for cooperation from all quarters to implement the action plan.

Those present at the meeting included district in-charge and Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai, MPs Suresh C. Angadi and Prabhakar B. Kore, Deputy Commissioner G. Ravishankar and Belgaum City Corporation Commissioner P.A. Meghannavar.
Subsequently, Mr. Bommai held a meeting with district officials and reviewed the progress of work in the boundary areas of the district. He told the officials to expedite all work.