A BIG THANK YOU: Belgaumblog.com

5:22 PM Posted by ukmad

To all my readers "A BIG THANK YOU" for supporting me all over this previous year.

This blog started its journey on August 7, 2007 as http://belgaumblog.blogspot.com and now it is http://belgaumblog.com. It has been a learning experience for me trying to collect information from various sources and putting it in on the blog. More than 26500+ visitors and 135+ RSS feed readers in one year for a city specific blog with a niche readership, I guess are very good.

On many occasions I have tried and covered events almost live and have given updates as they happened. It will be by endeavor to improve on it.

Some of you respond and leave comments, some of only read and some of you mailed me telling where I was going wrong and what I should be doing. I just hope I have made it to your expectations if not 100% at least near it.

I will keep trying my best to provide you information about our city Belgaum.

Reliacne Fresh: one @ Khanapur Road & second @ Hotel Hanuman

5:22 PM Posted by ukmad

Reliance Fresh will open its stores in Belgaum in two places. One at Khanapur Road, next to Kamat Hardwares, Opp.IOC office. The furniture work is in progress and we could expect the opening in a very short while.

The second will open at Hotel Hanuman, Nehru Nagar Belgaum.
Belgaumblog.com was the first site to break this news on March 18, 2008 the story is here.

So when you need to know it, may be it was first told on Belgaumblog.com






Raichur to Belgaum in 2 hours

8:18 PM Posted by ukmad

Ashok Kheny of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises has proposed the 2600-km road project, Karnataka First, includes a corridor linking Bidar and Bangalore. The other three highways are: Karwar-Bellary, Mangalore- Bangalore, and Raichur-Belgaum.

Travel Time after the highway is built. Bidar- Bangalore (6 hours) Now it tales around 16 hoursKarwar- Bellary (2 hours)Mangalore- Bangalore (2.5 hours)

Raichur- Belgaum (2 hours) It now takes around 9 to 10 hours. This would be very good for the people as it will save a lot of time. What is the route etc, I dont know, if anyone of you find it let me know. 10 hours to 2 hours Amazing stuff.

See original story in the MidDay here

Jakati was a good organizer

8:18 PM Posted by ukmad

Suspected terrorist Iqbal Jakati, who was arrested in Mumbai last Saturday

Iqbal Jakati's family hails from Ramdurg in Belgaum district and moved to Vishnugalli in Vadagaon, a suburb of Belgaum City. Iqbal completed his primary and higher education in the city, and graduated from the Gogte College of Commerce. Jakati and his friends are said to have engaged in social activities during his college days. He would provide books to poor Muslim students, and is said to have been instrumental in conducting the marriage of two Muslim widows.

His first experience with Jehad was five years ago, when he made efforts to secure the release of a few Gandhinagar youth in the city, during the communal violence. He was a close associate of the seven suspected terrorists, who were nabbed by police. Iqbal was an expert organiser, and had organised groups at Ashoknagar, Gandhinagar, and Azamnagar areas. He also preached Jehadi to these groups.Iqbal moved to the City’s Azadnagar area after his father retired as teacher and constructed a house there. Iqbal is married, and has two children. Last May, he went to Dubai on a tourist visa, to get a job with the help of his brother who lives there. With his visa to expire on August 10, he decided to return to India.

See original story from the Deccan Herald here

8:10 AM Posted by ukmad

Vijayshree Gudadkai has been selected as a pilot in Jet Airways. She completed her degree from KLE Eng.college, also worked as an airhostess for a while, and then took the commercial pilot training in Manila.

So, the next time you are on a Jet Airways flight do ask the airhostess who is the pilot? May be Vijayshree would be there.

See original Story here

Rohan Ajit Kokane Skating to glory

8:10 AM Posted by ukmad

At seven, this boy is looking forward to create a world record in limbo skating.
Rohan, son of Ajit Kokane of Belgaum, is working hard to create a history on Independence Day by skating under bars with a clearance height of 6 inches, not only in the forward direction but also in reverse skating.

If this happens, Rohan will be the second roller skater in the world after Zoey Beda of the U.S., who has earned nickname "Roller Limbo Princess" when she created a history by skating in reverse direction under 11 inches clearing height. But, Rohan will be setting a new world record by reverse skating under bars with 6 inches of clearing height.Suryakant Hindalgekar, Shashidhar Pol and Umesh Kalghatagi at the Belgaum Roller Skating Academy are training Rohan, a Class II student of St. Xavier’s School in the city.

See original story on The Hindu here

One more Arrest in terror scare

8:10 AM Posted by ukmad

Iqbal Ahmed Shauqat Ali Jakati, who was absconding since May 15, was detained at Sahar Airport in Mumbai on his arrival from Sharjah on August 2 as the police had issued “Lookout circular” to all airports in the country. He was wanted in connection with terrorist plots hatched allegedly by SIMI activists Munroz and Liyaquat Ali.

See image from TarunBharat here
See original story on The Hindu here

Bomb Scare near KLE

8:10 AM Posted by ukmad

Two small “gift boxes” caused a flutter in Belgaum on Monday when members of the public panicked suspecting them to be bombs. However, the bomb detection squad and the dog squad established that the material inside the boxes contained any explosive.

Even as the police and the people heaved a sigh of relief, a suitcase was found abandoned on a roadside near Third Railway gate on Belgaum-Goa Road later in the afternoon. The bomb squad rushed to the spot, carried out inspection, and ruled that it was not a bomb. The Tilakwadi Police has seized the suitcase.

See original story on The Hindu here

SIMI activist arrested in Belgaum:ON TERROR MAP

7:33 AM Posted by ukmad

SIMI activist arrested in Belgaum

The Anti-Terrorist Squad arrested Tanveer Mulla (31), an alleged activist of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), near the district stadium here on Saturday.

The police seized from him CDs and VCDs carrying information on Jehadi groups, provocative speeches vis-À-vis anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat, incidents of violence against Muslims in other parts of the country, and techniques to prepare bombs, along with visuals and diagrams.
Read original story on The Hindu here

The Tarun Bharat has reported that the Hidkal dam and Rakaskop reservoir were on the terror map to be blasted off. Read original story on Tarun Bharat Here (its with a specific Marathi font you will need to download it to view the site)
The paper also says that terror plans were made to blast a Car bomb. A cylinder blast was planned in Tilakwadi and they had made up a special cylinder for the same ffrom Bhendi Bazaar. All this info was got from the arrested Tanveer Mulla whose mother is an Anganwadi teacher and his father is a photographer who stays in Chavat Galli Belgaum.

Ye kya ho raha hai! Dear Belgaumites We should all come forward on this terror issue and come together and fight it out. First it was the metros and now these terrorists are targeting smaller towns. We need to be firm and fight this out. Your comments on this please.

Members inspect three sites along Pune-Bangalore highway near Belgaum for Vidhan Soudha

7:33 AM Posted by ukmad

The high-powered committee headed by Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar will soon take a final decision on the site for construction of Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belgaum. The team inspected three sites along Pune-Bangalore Express Highway near Halaga, Kamkaratti and Bhootaramanatti.
Read orignal story on The Hindu here
There was no outcome of the visit tough, where it was decided that another meeting will be held to finalise the issue. “Sarkari Kaam” The farmers of Halga are opposing the land acquisition for the said Soudha, God knows WHEN & WHERE this will be built. Your thoughts on this are welcome.

Royston Memorial Inter state tournament begins

10:48 PM Posted by ukmad

Royston Memorial Inter state tournament began.
Royston Memorial Inter state tournament began yesterday here and on the first day the guests won it.
St.Britos beat St.Xaviers and St.Stainslos Mumbai beat Rashtriya Miliraty school.

Shortage in rainfall this year:Belgaum

10:48 PM Posted by ukmad

As against the normal rainfall of 4179.5 mm, the district received 3975.3 mm in the first seven months of the year. The actual rainfall for the period was 397.5 mm as against 418.0 mm

Where do you want the Vidhan Soudha in Belgaum: Poll Results

10:48 PM Posted by ukmad


A poll(offline and online) was being conducted by Mr. Rajeev Topannavar. This site had also the said poll link. Here are the results of the said poll.
Tomorrow the committee constituted by the CM for site selection of vidhana soudha building is coming to Belgaum where this report will be submitted to them.

34% of the people who voted in the poll want the site to be Halga, next choice is Sambra followed by Vaccine Depot.
And I have fulfilled my promise made earlier that I will see that this site gets the results first.


Belgaum up at 77th Place in Deposit base & 70th in Credit: RBI report

10:49 AM Posted by ukmad


The Reserve Bank of India released its 'Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of Scheduled 2008'. The publication contains data relating to deposits and credit of scheduled commercial banks including (RRBs) as on March 31, 2008.

In the last report Belgaum stood at 76th place in both credit and deposit base, i.e.Dec 2007. In the next quarter Belgaum deposit base has come down by 1 place to 77 and the credit base has gone up 6 places to 70th position.

Belgaum is still at Fifth place in Karnataka after Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore & Hubli.

Providing this info here is only one pretext and to make know to the Belgaumites where we stand in Market as a whole. I have heard no doubt we are in 5th place in the deposit and credit base we are in 2nd position in terms of paying taxes to the govt. (I need to factually find the source tough)

No other site or even news paper cover this, but as Belgaumites we should know where we stand and all the big companies who plan to start any kind of operations here see these kind of reports and make their plans, hence I thought it fit to post this here.

Note: 'Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks' provides data on aggregate credit of scheduled commercial banks as on March 31, 2008. The data are based on Basic Statistical Return the branches of all scheduled commercial banks (including RRBs).

Source: Press Release: 2008-2009/72 RBIThe full report is here

St.Pauls Wins for 22nd time: Royston Memorial Football

4:34 PM Posted by ukmad

St.Pauls has won the 28th Royston Memorial Football by beating G G Chitnis School 5 goals to 0.

Hip Hip Hurrayyyy !!!!Ground reporter: Kiran Nippanikar


My great Thanks to Kiran Nippanikar for giving me the live updates