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Belgaum boundary dispute in the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Karnataka government on an application moved by Maharashtra contending that the boundary issues between the two states have not been settled in accordance with the settled principle.

Maharashtra govt. has challenged the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960.

In its affidavit, the Centre said: “The language of the people is one among the several criteria for inclusion of any area in a State. The Union government as well as Parliament had considered all relevant factors during the passing of the States Reorganisation Act. 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.”

In view of the Centre’s stand, Maharashtra sought an amendment to the suit stating the disputed Marathi-speaking areas of the pre-Independence province of Bombay should have continued with the erstwhile State of Bombay and then with Maharashtra on the basis of the principle of reorganisation adopted by the States Reorganisation Commission. The transfer of Marathi-speaking areas to Karnataka was contrary to the basic principle of State reorganisation and an arbitrary and unreasonable exercise of power under Article 3 (formation of new States).

The article deals with linguistic and cultural homogeneity and wishes of people of an area affected by reorganisation. The state government said even before Independence, provinces had been created on linguistic basis, deferring to the wishes of people of the affected areas.
Maharashtra says if language was the basis of reorganisation, all Marathi-speaking areas should have come to Maharashtra. A promise that the finer points of a broad division of linguistically contiguous areas would be worked out later didn’t materialise.
Now, it wants a comprehensive exercise going right down to the village level to ensure that not even a single Marathi-speaking village is left behind in Karnataka.
The inhabitants of the disputed area are being denied their fundamental right to live with dignity, without fear or oppression and the right to educate their children in their own language.

Source: The Hindu
TelegraphIndia Rediff

BTP Construction: A Tunnel Expert: Stars of Belgaum

I guess not many of this group and their achievements, heres another Star of Belgaum
BTP Group

Shri Jayant B. Patil, Balasaheb B. Patil, & Bapusaheb B. Patil in the year 1988 started a tunneling construction company, B.T.Patil & Sons Belgaum (Construction) Pvt. Ltd. This company has made long strides in tunneling and underground construction.

BTP is contributing with guts and determination for the cause of infrastructure development which has been a key work in economic progress of the country, especially after embarking on liberalization programme. May it be Power, Irrigation & Water Supply; Railways tunneling through mountains has been a challenging task that BTP has always accepted through its conscientious, trained and hard working team of 2000. BTP is committed to attain excellence in everything that requires commitment & vision in years to come.While India is passing through extremely competitive phase of globalization young BTP is looking forward to enormous opportunities in its self-selected challenging and difficult path of being the harboring of infrastructural development through tunneling and underground construction. The company has diversified into future's biggest industry Road Construction

An US $ 18-million company today. BTP with an unabating quest for betterment is set to grow by leaps and bounds.

Tunneling and construction work of more than 65 kms at diversified locations of hydroelectric projects, irrigation projects and railway projects have proven the mettle of BTP, setting it to face the rigors of imminent down to earth competition necessary for improving critical infrastructure for overall economic development.

While constructing Tike tunnel on Konkan Railway through sound basalt strata, trees and plants 107 meters above remained unperturbed yet the 3072-m tunnel has been kept cool and fresh through scientifically designed ventilation system; is one of many examples.
The Construction of TILLARI HYDRO_ELECTRIC PROJECT heralds the fulfillment of a long cherished dream of millions of people of Konkan belt.

The main water storage for Tillari Hydro Electric Project is formed by Construction of a masonry dam, 38m high, across the Tillari River, with a capacity of about 113m. cum(4 T.M.C.)The impounded water will be led through a "Power Canal" 15 km in length to balancing reservoir formed by construction of a Forebay Dam (masonry).Some important Tunnels constructed by BTP:
Some Important Tunnels constructed:
Chiplun Tunnel - Total Tunnel Length 2125 m.
Tike Tunnel, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra - Total Tunnel Length 3,072m
Karbude Tunnel- Total Tunnel Length 6.5 kms
Achievements
National and International HonorsBTP, a name fast becoming synonymous with tunneling in the last decade and a half as acquired accolades aplenty, like.
National Record & International Honors:
* Tunnel excavation progress of 168 m/ month on a single face on Koyna Hydro-Electric Project (1995). * Tunnel excavation progress of 236m/ month on a single face on Jath Tunnel (M.K.V.D.C 2001). * 196.5 m / per face through shaft in one month while working on Bhima-Sina Link Tunnel (M.K.V.D.C 1999). * 330 m through one shaft in one month. * 1183 m per month on a single tunnel. * 10548 m in one year on a single tunnel. * 8,48,000 cum of Underground Excavation through shaft on a single Tunnel.
Record :
* Executing four blasts in 24 hours while working on Tike Tunnelof Konkan Railway. * 'World Tunnelling News ' an internatinal magazine dedicated to underground construction has featured B.T.P. time and again in their issues citing our achievements.
The BTP group is made of sister concerns that facilitate the overall construction process.

Patson Structural (India) Pvt.Ltd. A heavy engineering company having core competence in turnkey fabrication, erection and commissioning of turnkey structures is the backbone of BTP, while providing mechanical back-up to BTP, PSIL is looking forward to have the most modern engineering facilities state of the art machine shop & technology

B.T.Patil & Sons Belgaum (Const) Pvt.Ltd. A major Civil & Structural Construction Company of BTP into Hydro-power projects, Irrigation Tunnels, Roads and Rail Tunnels, Radial Crest Dam Gates & Highway/Water Supply Projects

B.T.Patil & Sons Foundation. A Charitable Trust which belongs to Patson Group, which helps the needy in Educational, Medical students & also contributes in Social & Sports promotional activities.

Truly the Patil’s are the Stars of Belgaum.
Website: http://www.btpconstruction.com/

Belgaum Congress Session 1924: Did you know this in History

Mayor of Belgaum this time could be Marathi
At the fag end of the Mayors term of the Belgaum city Corporation the ruling Pro Kannada Sarvabhashik Samavichar Vedike seems to have a split and chances this time that the mayor could be from the Marathi group have strengthened.
The 29 Pro Kannada corporators who were able to elect Prashanta Budvai as the Mayor are now complaining that she did very little for the city in a corporation, which is dominated by Marathi group.
At her last meeting most of the corporators did not turn up and its now said they have formed a new forum. This is a successful conclusion for the Marathi group as they can come back to power in corporation where there has been Marathi mayor since its inception in 1984, except on two occasions.
Twenty-two corporators of the Sarvabhashik Samavichar Vedike, a forum of the pro-Kannada faction, have parted ways with it to form a new outfit.

Source: Deccan Chronicle

The Name game: Belgaum & Belagavi

Union minister Pranab Mukherjee, while presenting the interim budget, chose to call the city `Bengaluru', thus giving it official sanctity.
It has been over three years now that the UPA government is sitting on the files of the renaming 13 cities in Karnataka.
In addition, all is stuck because of our town, Belgaum. The hitch lies in renaming `Belgaum' as `Belagavi'. The Centre has not agreed to this as Belgaum is caught between Karnataka and Maharashtra in the border dispute. One of the Centre's guidelines for renaming places is that the names should not hurt people's sentiments, have political overtones or be already in use in some other state. Karnataka is unwilling to drop Belgaum and go ahead with re-naming the other 12 cities.
See the importance of Belgaum, because of which renaming of 12 other cities is officially hampered. Bagalore is now called Bengaluru in almost all places but officially its still not renamed.
Why renaming at all? Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai, Calcutta became Kolkotta so why should we remain behind. However, what is the logic behind renaming is a mystery to me. What difference does it make I call it Belgaum and you call it Belagavi or even Belgaon, all will stay in the same city drink the same water and breathe the same air, so what is the utility of renaming?
Source: TOI

MES take out rally

The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti yesterday took out a huge rally starting from Sardars High School ground urging the government to heed the demands of linguistic minorities. The state government should have government records in Marathi as "many of those living in Belgaum district speak Marathi". They also demanded rectification of mistakes in the preparation/ distribution of ration cards. Fertile land being acquired by BUDA and KIADB should be immediately stopped; these were a few demands of the protestors.

Farmers get relief: HC stays order of land acquisition

Poor farmers near the Bellary nala on the side of the NH4 who were about to loose their fertile land to the private society (Parivartan Alpasankyatara Krishi Sahakar Sangh ) controlled by Belgaum South MLA Abhay Patil, have won their first round of the battle.
The Karnataka High Court, on January 30, passed an interim order granting stay against the acquisition of land stating that the lands in the possession of the appellant farmers should not be disturbed until disposal of the appeal made by the appellants.
The respondents into the case included the Department of Industries and Commerce, Belgaum Deputy Commissioner, Special Land Acquisition Officer in Karnataka Industrial Development Corporation, Dharwad; Belgaum tahsildar and the sangh.
While passing the stay order, the court found prima facie that possession of lands was not taken as provided in Section 28 of Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Act, 1966. The possession of the land was taken by the Revenue Inspector of the village who was not empowered to do so under the law.
The court noted that the lands in question were earmarked for agricultural purpose in the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) for Belgaum.

See related posts of the same story.
Farmers say don’t take our land
Farmers accuse MLA of trying to grab land
Who will hear the farmers? Police accused of harassment
HC order comes as a relief to farmers
Source: The Hindu

Airport expansion in full swing

Airport expansion in full swing

Work on expansion of the Belgaum airport which had headed into rough weather due to trouble over land acquisition, has picked up pace over the last few months.

The government has been able to acquire all the 298 acres around the airport required to upgrade it and is ready to hand them over to the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Rs.13.5 lakh per acre have been paid for the acqusition of land. Many people of Sambra had threatened to commit suicide in protest over the government acquiring their properties for the airport arguing that they would lose their livelihoods as their families had cultivated the fertile lands for many decades.

However, the government managed to pacify them by paying them huge compensation.

Source: Deccan Chronicle

Meetings on: Horse-trading can happen again in Mayor election

After the reservations for the office of Mayor and Dy.Mayor were declared, all the corporators are busy in meetings in various hotels to find the luck one.
Both the ruling Sarvabhashik Samvichari Vikas front and the Marathi speaking opposition are trying their best to get the hands on both offices. The elections for both offices are likely to be held in the first week of March, so we could get a new Mayor by then. Hope there is some change in Belgaum then.

Sena men attack Katwa infotech premises for Anti V day protests

Sri Rama Sene activists today attacked workers of Katwa Infotech, a BPO while they were celebrating Valentine day, injured two of them and ransacked the venue in Belgaum.
A 15-member group of sene activists, which was on the prowl to stall the celebrations in line with their threat to disrupt the event, spotted the banners put up at Katwa Infotech, a BPO, located in Jyoti Towers complex in Vadgaon.

They pulled down the banners and issued a warning to the gathering to disperse. As the employees, most of them teenaged boys and girls ran helter and skelter, the activists pelted stones, damaging the window panes of the building, ransacked furniture and assaulted some persons in which two received minor injuries.After a few minutes, the culprits left the area before the police arrived on the scene.
Source: PTI

Love under police protection: V day all was normal

This year’s Valentine’s Day was celebrated with a fear factor in mind by the youngsters. There was police presence at all the colleges and important hang out points and circles. No major incident I got to know about all went off peacefully.
The Shri Ram Sene also organized a rally from JNMC to RPD.
I met a few who said they will celebrate Valentine’s Day tomorrow.
The Shiv Sena burnt the Valentine’s Day cards in front of Gogte College it was a part of the rally they took out from RPD corner. In all as there was preventive arrest made of Pramod Muthalik in Gulburga yesterday things were subdued today.
There was police presence at all the colleges which was quite abnormal for many.

Tax Not Paid stickers on your property

The Belgaum city corporation in a landmark decision has taken a step to put stickers with ‘TNP’ (Tax Not Paid) on all those properties who have not paid their property tax.
This is a new novel method opted by the corporation but how much it will help in actually collecting taxes needs to be seen.
Source: Express Buzz

BTP InfoServe Belgaum HEALTHCARE BPO REVOLUTION

The 100 Crore question of Belgaum

For many years the government was not looking into the issues related to development and infrastructure in Belgaum. But off late the successive governments are taking a keen interest in the development of Belgaum which is mainly propelled by the influence and efforts of various organizations. Unluckily none of the politicians from Belgaum have played any role in pressurizing the government; it is the successful efforts of the Organizations that have helped.
The Belgaum City Corporation under different grants has done many road works. Funds from flood relief, 17.80 crores from SFC grant, and 14 crores from World Kannada meet, Special fund before Belgaum's winter sessions. The main roads and other roads works have been completed. In fact some roads have been re-done before the maintenance periods got over.

The 100 crore grant is an additional grant to the BCC for overall development of Belgaum City. The Highlights of the present action plan is only on Roads, more than 90% of the grant is to be utilized for Roads and the remaining 10% for drains and electrical works.

See earlier post related to this here.
Why have they not considered other infrastructure which the city badly needs?
The market area needs multi level parking, Widening of Roads, beautification of existing parks, Amusement parks, under passes(near Court compound and elsewhere), over bridges, Bus shelters, Community Halls, etc. The development of city does not only mean building roads. We also need other infrastructure in place.
When people demand for infrastructure Corporation officials & authorities say there are no funds, but when funds are available they are misutilized for wrong purposes. How many times to do they want to build the same roads again and again?
The proposed action plan was planned by private engineers it is said. The corporation has not bothered to see if the road works proposed in this action plan are due for work or they are still in the maintenance period.
The Karnataka Rakshane Vedike is demanding to stop the tendering process and scrap the existing action plan and come up with a new comprehensive action plan which provides opportunity for:
Construction of multi level parking
Widening of Roads
Beautification of existing parks
Amusement parks
Under passes (near Court compound and elsewhere)
Over bridges
Bus shelters
Community Halls

Before the action plan is re proposed they should have a meeting of all organizations and take their opinion and they should have some professional urban planning firms to advice and overlook on the works.
The KRV was protesting with the same at the Corporation office, but to my surprise no one covered the news. I have no idea why this is so? I am just doing this after getting inputs from KRV and I guess what they have stated is correct, Why only roads build other infrastructure also using those 100 crores. The KRV added that the above mentioned infrastructural developments are only a few which the city needs, there could be many more.
It was also felt that the citizens of Belgaum should come together under a common platform for the development of Belgaum. All the citizens’ forums working in the city and the public at large should take keen interest in the development of the city.
I request readers to comment on this and debate heavily; after all it’s our own tax payer’s money that will be utilized here again.