After taking one and half year the Centre on Tuesday field a reply to the Maharashtra’s 2004 affidavit and its application in 2009 claiming jurisdiction of Belgaum and other cities.
“The transfer of certain areas to then Mysore (now Karnataka) was neither arbitrary nor wrong,’’ as claimed by Maharashtra,” Dr Praveen Kumari Singh, director of Ministry of Home Affairs, said in the Centre’s reply.
In its affidavit, the central government told the apex court that just because most people in the border district speak Marathi was not ground enough for the areas to be appended to Maharashtra.
According to the Union government, Maharashtra’s petition should be dismissed and exemplary cost should be imposed for filing such a suit. The state of erstwhile Mysore was joined with parts of Bombay, Hyderabad, Madras and Coorg to form Karnataka five decades ago under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956.
In a sharp reaction, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said the decision was 'unfair' to the people of Maharashtra. 'If this is the case, then why not abolish this policy of carving out states on linguistic basis,' he said. Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) leaders said 'This is an unfortunate decision by the centre,'.
Others in Karnataka welcomed the Centre's stand and said that this was according to the Mahajan Commissions report.

AAB's View: We are sure this post will break all previous records of comments. But when something about development is posted the comments are the least. We expect the same commenting strength on all our posts. We love to read what you write as you love what we write. Jai Hind!

The Indo-US combat exercise `Vajra Prahar' between the special forces of the two countries will be held at the Belgaum commando school in Karnataka between August and September.

The special forces of both the countries will take part in simulated insurgency and terror strike scenario.

The exercise is part of the series of bilateral exercises that the armies of India and the United States have each year, with ‘Shatrujeet' and ‘Yudh Abhyas' being the other two.India had hosted the Chinese Army for the exercise in December 2008 at Belgaum. The first edition was held in Kunming, China during 2007.

The BJP called nation wide BANDH call has got good response in the city of Belgaum. All commercial establishment are closed in all areas. Petrol pumps are closed. City buses are off the roads so are the Autos.
A few activists tried to burn a trye at Chennamma circle. A noted factor was the missing MLA , only MP Angadi was seen.
All Photos UkMaD.

Live updated at 1.35pm
16470 kms covered in 17 days 19 hours 30 minutes
Three friends –Aadil Bandukwala (Belgaum), Sameer Siddique & Ratheesh Kumar who had set to complete and Tantalize India by traveling xxxx kms, have done it in record time of 17 days 19 hours 30 minutes.







The earlier record was 19 days and 23 hours which was festered as a record by Limca Book of Records.
They had begun their trip on June 16th 2010 from Bangalore and they landed back to Bangalore today 4th July, 2010 at 1.30 pm.




Their dream has come true after having to go through some very rambunctious time driving through Leh Ladakh and the North East. Their car was stuck in ice and had to wait for five hours to get back on the road. In the north east they faced the most horrible time as they had to divert into the forests due to a landslide and they had to go without food for 24 hours and they continuously drove there for 25 hours non stop.
Many had said why this time of the year with rains on the score, but the trio in one voice said, “ If do a record do it with all the adversity possible, so that the next time people will think over.”
With all the adversity behind them they also had some great time in the boat house on the Dal Lake, the fun riding a Jugad in Rajasthan & meeting new people all the while.




After the Limca book of records goes through all the records and data the trio will be officially declared as the record holders for traveling pan India 16000 kms in 18 days.
Congratulations !!!! Aadil Bandukwala (Belgaum), Sameer Siddique & Ratheesh Kumar you have made us proud.
The route they covered:
Bangalore (Karnataka) – Vellore – Chennai (Tamil Nadu) – Puducherry (Puducherry) – Madurai (Tamil Nadu) – Thiruvananthapuram – Kochi – Kozhikode (Kerala) – Mangalore – Karwar (Karnataka) – Panaji – Mapusa (Goa) – Belgaum (Karnataka) – Satara – Pune – Mumbai – Palghar (Maharashtra) – Silvasa (Dadra, Nagar Haveli) – Daman Daman (Daman & Diu) – Bharuch – Vadodara – Gandhinagar – Godhra (Gujarat) – Indore – Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) – Rajgarh – Kota – Jaipur – Bikaner – Ganganagar (Rajasthan) – Firozpur – Amritsar – Pathankote (Punjab) – Jammu – Udhampur – Srinagar – Kargil – Leh – Pang (Jammu & Kashmir) – Jispa – Manali – Bilaspur – Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) – Chandigarh (Punjab, Haryana & UT) – Nahan (Himachal Pradesh) – Dehradun (Uttarakhand) – Delhi (NCT) – Agra – Kanpur – Lucknow – Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) – Patna – Khagaria – Purnia – (Bihar) – Dalkola – Siliguri – Jalpaiguri – Cooch Behar (West Bengal) – Goalpara – Guwahati – Dispur (Assam) – Shillong (Meghalaya) – Karimganj (Assam) – Agartala (Tripura) – Silchar (Assam) – Aizawl (Mizoram) – Imphal (Manipur) – Kohima – Dimapur (Nagaland) – Jorhat – North Lakhimpur (Assam) – Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) – Tezpur – Nalbari – Kachugaon (Assam) – Alipurduar – Madarihat – Mal Bazar – (West Bengal) – Gangtok (Sikkim) – Darjeeling – Malda – Baharampur – Calcutta – Kharagpur (West Bengal) – Baharagora – Jamshedpur – Ranchi – Chaibasa (Jharkhand) – Kendujhargarh – Bhubaneshwar – Sambalpur (Orissa) – Raipur (Chhattisgarh) – Nagpur / Chandrapur (Maharashtra) – Nizamabad – Hyderabad – Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) – Anantapur – Bangalore (Karnataka).

The BJP and the left have given a nation wide Bandh call from 6am to 6pm on Monday 5^thJuly 2010.
In Belgaum also it seems the Bandh will be successful as many organizations have showed in their support for the Bandh.
The Bandh has been called for to protest the price rise in the country.
Auto rikshaw organisation is taking part in the bandh so people coming in on Monday be prepared for some hardships.

To the people of Belgaum this is one of the important roads that needs to be upgraded which will bring in more business and also easier access to Goa.
The road would be 4 laned until Khanapur and then it will be two laned until Goa border. Further in stage 2 of the project the road would be 4 laned and 6 laned respectively.
 The biding process for the same is over but the project has not been awarded to any one yet. The construction time for roads only is 30 months. Provisions for tolling system and toll plaza have been proposed at km 18.835 ( this will be somewhere after Alma Motors near Desur) and km 66.315 (just near Anmod Ghat).
 The project Road, Belgaum to Karnataka / Goa Border, the 84.0 km section of NH- 4A, forms a part of the proposed schemes of widening of various National Highway stretches/ corridors to 4/6-lanes under the Prime Minister’s NHDP Phase III programme in the country. This stretch is proposed to be on BOT / DBFOT (Toll) basis.
 Two Laning with Paved Shoulder and Four-Laning from km 30.00 to km 81.9 of NH-4A (Immediate Two Laning) and km 0.00 to km 30.00 of NH-4A (Immediate Four Laning) Subsequent Four Laning – from km 30.00 to km 81.9 of NH-4A - Stage Construction from Two Laning to Four Laning .
 The project road (NH-4A) starts within Belgaum city limits (near St. Anthony’s Church), runs southward and traverses the districts of Belgaum (Belgaum & Khanapur tehsils) and Uttar Kannada (Supa Tehsil) in the state of Karnataka. The project road ends at the Goa/Karnataka border and is about 84 km long.
 The road starts abruptly within Belgaum city (near St. Anthony’s Church) and does not directly link with the existing NH-4 (Pune-Bangalore Road). Traffic from NH-4, destined to Belgaum/ Goa thus has to use the Belgaum city roads prior to switching over to NH-4A to continue its onward journey.
A significant portion of the project road upto Goa/Karnataka border passes through thick reserved forests on either side.
Traffic from NH-4 destined for Belgaum or Goa uses the city roads to join NH-4A. The NH-4 feeds traffic to the project road from the states of Maharashtra (Satara, Kolhapur, Pune etc.), Gujarat and north India.
A number of State Highways link the project road and caters to traffic to & from the surrounding regions. These include:
• SH-54 - From NH-4A Peeranwadi to Jamboti
• SH-31 - Bailhongal – Bagevadi – Khanapur (NH-4A) – Jamboti – Chorla
• SH-30 - From NH-4A Khanapur to Hemmadaga/Anmod on NH-4A
• SH-93 - From NH-4A Khanapur to Linganmatha/ Yellapur
• SH-34 - From NH-4A Ramnagar to Dharwad/ Hubli
• SH-95 - From NH-4A Ramnagar to Supa – Karwar

Belgaum ( Near Fish Market Start) (Km 0+000) – Khanapur (Km26+000)
Khanapur (Km26+000) – Ramnagar (Km 53+000)
Ramnagar (Km 53+000) - Tinaighat (Km 66+000), and
Tinaighat (Km 66+000) – Goa/Karnataka border (End)

Belgaum Bypass
Belgaum is connected to Panaji in the South-West through NH-4A which originates from Belgaum. Origination of NH-4A is within the densely populated residential/ commercial area of the city. This is connected to NH- 4 by a road which criss-crosses through several urban arterial and sub-arterial roads and in the process gets mixed up. On the other hand, a bypass on NH-4 has been constructed through the northern and eastern outskirts of Belgaum, taking off from km 498 and touching down at km 507. This has pushed the NH-4 further away from NH-4A. As mentioned earlier, there is no direct linkage for through traffic between NH-4 and NH4-A. This forces NH-4 bound traffic from NH-4A and the vice versa to enter the congested city of Belgaum, get interrupted by the urban traffic and exit after passing through several major and minor intersections. Clearly, this results in enormous delay and confusion to the through traffic. This weaving is undesirable and calls for comprehensive improvement plan in the form of a Belgaum Bypass.
Belgaum Bypass starts from Km 497.5 of NH-4 (Near Halga) and meets NH-4A at 9.5 having a total length of 9.5 km.
 Khanapur Bypass takes off from km 23.2 and merges again with NH-4A at km 28.2 having a total length of 5 km.
 Total Project Cost for 4 Laning of Section- I along with 2 Bypasses and 2 Laning with paved shoulder of Section- II & III of the Project Corridor would be Rs. 3,118,902,461.00
Source: The Project report on the Road at NHAI

BRIGHT is originally named upon the logic of doing business with art and enhancing the latest technology to the maximum output. BRIGHT is Belgaum based media production house involved in the MEDIA training for individuals. The art that is virtually real in presenting the inner-most imaginations to its maximum output of the targeted information.
BRIGHT (Promoted by 3iglobal Pvt. Ltd.), member ofITBELGAUM was formed with the aim of providing quality-specialized training in the field of Multimedia Animation, Corporate Graphics, Advertising, Photography, Videography and Event Management. BRIGHT is the right platform for individuals who will be largely benefited from its professional training and will be hired by premium corporate house.
This has been confirmed feedback from the ex-clients. Highly experienced people from various disciplines are both providing and availing BRIGHT services with the backup of lifelong vast and varied experience coupled with expertise in techniques required for arranging and attaining the said objectives for our valued clients.

The resources available at their command are immense and will bring tangible results to students. Their associates who are quite resourceful and diligent themselves at all levels from top to bottom will be the stepping stone for our students. The venture can be termed as a focal point for disseminating information relating to Multimedia and ventures on promoting such industries.
BRIGHT an independent company in the field of training and providing services for Animation, Multimedia, Photography, Videography and Event Management will be the platform to supply polished Visualiser, Designers and Performers to the corporate sector. Soon in days to come BRIGHT will be one of the top institution in India for the above. Not only this but also feedback from the professional clientèle in India and abroad have encouraged the promoters of this company to continue to provide the best services.
Courses offered:
Animation in Maya and VFX Training
Digital Photography Training
Personality Development Course
Videography Video Editing Training
WEB 2.0
Vishal Kulkarni and Vinod Chavan promoters of BRIGHT (Promoted by 3iglobal Pvt. Ltd.) told the blog that, “the main intent to start this training institute is for the primary reason that talent pool in Belgaum is not trained according to industry standards. We have some good projects from all over the globe and to cater to them we need trained people, but in city like Belgaum the training given in field of animation is outdated and not what the industry uses. We at BRIGHT intend only to teach what is required and used in the industry and course modules will be changed accordingly to industry standards.”
They also added that,” We thought of this backward integration so that we can get good trained people by which we can expand our footprint and make our global presence felt.” They also mentioned that “ Belgaum has a great talent pool which is rare but there are very few people who can groom them to current industry standards.
BRIGHT
3i Global Inc.
Development Centre
217/7, Kashi Kunj,
1st Cross Ganesh Marg,
Hindwadi,
Belgaum 590 011
Phone: 831 230 177
Cell: 93413 73161
http://bright.3iglobal.in/ 

This is the first article in the series of articles in which we will give an emphasis on what Belgaum needs for its development under the banner of BelgaumNext.
Belgaum Next is a people’s endeavor to bridge the gap between good and bad governance on the strength of an open citizen’s platform and is steered by passionate people from across Industry, government, academia and other organizations. The platform stands for one voice that is focused on one agenda: the all round development of our city. Where every voice has weight and no idea is considered too small.

Livable, Lovable Belgaum

by Dr.Nitin Khot
Belgaum was a small town nestling high in the Western Ghats, famous for its equable climate, pure water, rich milk and butter– that the British developed into a hill station.
Serving as a first destination for both British civilian and military personnel coming to a hot, tropical country that had many incurable diseases, Belgaum was systematically laid out with a vast Cantonment (of 1776 acres) and a town municipality.
So successful was the development of Belgaum as an educational, industrial, medical centre that it began to attract people from nearby areas and its population swelled from about a lakh in 1941 to 6,29,600 in 2001. Belgaum became one of the most livable cities in this part of the country.
However, rapid urbanization creates its own problems – putting pressure on inadequate infrastructural facilities and a fragile ecological base. As various groups struggle for competitive advantage and preferential access to a limited bundle of goods and services, the quality of life begins to deteriorate.
Caught as it has historically been at the intersection of ambitions of conflicting kingdoms or states, Belgaum has had an additional set of woes added to the basic problem of insufficiency. For decades after independence it has suffered from ‘benign neglect’.
It is to address these issues frontally and to chart out a sustainable development path for the city with a vision of atleast 15 years that a Symposium is being held on July 2010.
The areas of key concern that will be addressed initially are;

1. Water – augmentation of supplies and efficient distribution.
2. Power – quality of, and severance from its carbon base.
3. Transportation and Traffic Flow – Development of Hub and Spoke model for roads, and improvement of public and mass transit system.
4. Industrial Matrix: for employment generating industries in areas where Belgaum has inherent advantages.
5. Beautification of the City.

Our group has decided to restrict its initial efforts to just these five areas.

1. Water: The story of Belgaum’s efforts to deliver water to its rapidly increasing population has been widely appreciated around the country – with the Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi, conferring upon Belgaum two prestigious awards in 2008 and 2009.

Alone amongst all the cities in India, Belgaum has tapped its aquifers to lift, purify and supply water daily to as many as 1,60,000 people (or over one thirdof its central population). This effort received the Urban Water Award at Hyderbad in May 2008.
In 2009, the Ministry lauded the 24/7 water supply scheme of Belgaum that has achieved a success rate of 95% - which no other urban 24/7 water supply scheme could reach.
The only problem of success is that it raises expectations – and all now expect more innovative water management practices from Belgaum.
We have thus decided to propose two thrust areas in this field – a rapid extension of the area where water harvesting in practiced – starting with all government buildings. The total roof area of government buildings will be calculated and the percentage of roof area where rain water is harvested will be worked out and increased each year.
We also wish to support with our efforts a rapid expansion of the two Demo Zones (covering 10 wards) of the 24/7 schemes – till it reaches 100%. We, expect that the Defence Ministry will join this scheme throughout the vast Cantonment of Belgaum.
2. Power: Karnataka faces a chronic shortage (of about 2000 MW in 2009 which it bought from other States for Rs. 2000 crores). The power deficit has worsened in 2010 with the State already having purchased 1000 MW till March 2010 and about 750 MW each month since.
Belgaum’s power consumption is growing rapidly. Vast areas of our industrial areas and our people will be ‘powerless’ for extended periods of time. There will be loss of productivity and an increase in cost, which will cost Belgaum the competitive edge in many of its manufactured products.
To tackle this basic problem we propose ‘energy parks’ to be set up close to industrial areas so that alternative sources of renewable energy can be harnessed.
It is the resolve of our Group to help Belgaum reduce its carbon footprint from year to year and to help the aggregation and sale of carbon credits.
With an assured 286 days of solar insolation reaching Belgaum annually. Solar Energy has to be assigned cardinal priority we, hopefully, might be able to establish a Collective Solar Power Station functioning here in the near feature.
3.Transport and Traffic Flows: Belgaum’s roads bear all the marks of a city that has evolved, rather than been established and hence are narrow and circuitous. Bottlenecks have developed all over the city. There is a colossal waste of both petrol and time – both very precious resources.
Many arterial roads need to be widened and encroachments removed – without fear or favour. Some roads need to be designated as ‘arterial roads’ and special regulations need to be enacted to keep them free of obstruction. The ‘circumferential road’ needs to be developed to its full width as fast as possible. Besides this we endorse the ‘hub and spoke’ model of road layout for the City and its outlying areas with a ‘Mudrika’ bus service plying on the Ring Road. Eventually a light railway track will have to be laid along side the Ring Road.
4. Employment Generating Industry Matrix: one of the sadder aspect of living in Belgaum is the fact that its most talented youth have to seek employment in the first tier cities – leaving behind their ageing parents.
Belgaum, possibly alone in Karnataka has developed exceptional industrial expertise in certain fields like casting, crankcase and crank-shaft, and gear manufacturing, and has several medium industries who are original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to reputable automobile and motorcycle manufacturers in Pune.
We also have high quality vehicle body building units.
From here it is one small step to attracting a complete vehicle manufacturing establishment to Belgaum. We already have one of the country’s largest aerospace SEZ’s in Belgaum and we feel that a car manufacturing facility will develop some synergies with this SEZ.
We expect such units to expand the employment potential of Belgaum considerably.

5. Beautification: The quality of life afforded by a city to its citizens depends to a large measure on its aesthetic appeal. Broad, tree-lined avenues, fountains, parks and monuments, lakes and small water bodies need to be developed across the city and we intend to request local architects to develop plans to beautify individual localities.
About the author:

Dr.Nitin Khot is a retired professional from the United Kingdom and has worked for many green projects in the country. He is also an economist and has vast knowledge about urban planning.