The long pending Belgaum one centers have got a “Muhurat” of August 25, and same will inaugurated by CM Yedurappa.

Belgaum one centers were sanctioned long back on the same lines as Bangalore One success.

These centers will be a one stop single window center for major government related work and various bill payments.

Govaves, Ashok Nagar, TV center BUDA complex & Old corporation building will house these centers.

Water bills, electricity bills, House tax and insurance premiums payment will be accepted to begin with and later the services would be increased. Various other documents like Passport forms, Forms issued through Nemmadi centers will also be issued from here.

The Government of Karnataka is keen to provide integrated services to the citizens deploying the tools of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) so as to enhance Speed, Convenience, Certainty and Accountability in providing such services through the concept of a ‘One-Stop-Shop’ facility.

by CJ- Sanjeev Patravali

Under the nirmal gram yojna and various other schemes the garbage is collected from house to house and then it is collected and taken to the dumping ground.

But today morning at Somwar Peth, Tilakwadi the Garbae collectors who had collected the garbage dumped the same into a water tank kept on the side of the road, which was kept there for some construction work of the gutter.

The residents who saw this incident were raged and got hold of the culprits and asked them to remove all the garbage they had dumped.

The problem of waste management is the worst and the most important any city. The main objective of collecting of this garbage from house to house is that the same is not dumped else where, but the entire logic of this scheme has been kept aside by these private people and we have come to know about this due to some vigilant residents.

The corporation should have a mechanism which will monitor these private people who have got the contract to collect the garbage so that such incidents do not repeat.

In the past six months Belgaum has seen a lot of ho-hallo on the road widening in various areas of the city.

In December 2009 these roads were taken up for widening:

RPD college road to Patwardhan layout (under 100 crore special grant) – Work is half done

Mahatma Fule road to Old PB road (under 100 crore special grant) -still work in progress

APMC road (under 100 crore special grant) – Work in progress Major complete

Old PB road upto bus stand – Trees have been cut on the road but no further progress

Khanapur Road (Sanchayani circle to Suryakant Park) (Cantonment Board) – nothing has happened here

Govaves to 3rd Gate (PWD) – Nothing has happened here

Leaving the last two roads Khanapur Road and Govaves to 3rd Gate on which nothing but some papers have moved in the PWD, all the other roads were taken up by the Corporation under the special 100 crore grant. And majority works were supposed to be complete by January 2010, but the work is still in progress.

Even after such a mess, the corporation in a so called MLA style road widening is getting it self ready to widen a few more roads after Ganpati may be. These roads are

Bank of India Shahpur to Dharwad road – 80 feet road next to Shivaji Garden

Bank of India Shahpur to Dharwad road

Goaves to 1st Gate (Shukurwar Peth) – exact width of road not known

Goaves to 1st Gate (Shukurwar Peth) – exact width of road not known

1st gate to RPD cross ( Deshmukh road) – exact width of road not known

Vadgaon to Old Belgaum

The above road widening may be done as marking the center point of the street was carried out in Shukurwar Peth and Deshmukh road. Bank of India Shahpur to Old PB road which will go from the Shivaji Garden people have received notices for the same. And in this road an old well in the garden will also face closure. This road which is leading from Mahatma Phule road will join Dharwad road.

For any road widening to be done in the city the City corporation has to pass a resolution for the same but all the above projects were done without its approval and the same be continued in future.

A few questions arise in the mind when the road the expansion in the new areas will begin. Shukurwar Peth will not be easy as there is a property of a local representative. Deshmukh road also has some great stalwarts from media. Even if these two roads are widened what about the Railway gate. The main cause of traffic jam here is the railway gate. No one is speaking about this.

The Vadgaon to Old Belgaum road has houses of poor weavers who will loose a major chunk of their house and this is a major cause of concern for them.
Road widening is very essential for a growing city but the manner in which the same is executed is the problem everywhere. A great example of doing things in a hurry is the case of Delhi where new roads were laid in record time for the commonwealth games and now everyday we have news of vehicles getting stuck into dumps on the newly laid roads. Similar things can happen here as well.

Instead of taking so many projects at one time, the corporation(if its has powers) should take one road complete it and then go for the next one. Belgaum is seeing some road widening in a new abhay style.

After the full fledged drama yesterday today work on RPD road was on a snails pace and the bulldozers were busy demolishing the compound walls along the road till Patwardhan layout.

The main point of yesterdays drama the Gomatesh Vidyapeeth, compound wall of the Vidyapeeth and some parts of the building were also demolished.

Gomatesh Vidyapeeth compound wall demolished

A notable factor was a poster stuck opposite the RPD the main gate on a hoarding. It says it all.

As of today compound walls of major bunglows have been demolished. But the Gogte and RPD college compound walls still exist. Even the walls of a small shrine were seen untouched.

Even before majority works begins the MLA thought it better to put up a board at the site taking credit of it all.

Many readers would say that this blog is biased and always against development. But here the point of view is that no one on the road the residents, shop owners were happy in which the whole thing is being done.

As of today it is May 14 and within 15 days or a month we will have heavy rains and until then what work will happen on the road is the question.

New gutters will have to built on both sides, this will take a minimum of 2 months after reviewing the work at Phule road, which is in rags even after 6 months. So one could expect a similar time frame for this road to be back to its glory.

Development works are needed but the manner in which they are executed is the biggest question. Say the work is done on a war footing then what would be the standard of the work, another big question.

“We never had a fight as the media has put it, we both MLAs were speaking in a loud voice for sure but not fighting” said Belgaum Rural MLA Sanjay Patil. Further he added that he himself will demolish the part of the buildings that come in the road. Even tough he has taken a Stay order he has agreed to demolish the parts of the building. The road will be 80 feet as per the CDP.

MLA Sanjay Patil speaking to the engineer

This morning the corporation officials woke up and remembered that the RPD road widening is pending and hence gathered at the road to commence the demolition. The MLA stopped all the work.

MLA speaking with City Commissioner

At the DC office both of them had a verbal spat and after the DC intervened the matter was resolved.

MLA Trio visiting RPD road after Dil Jamai

Somehow the DC managed to settle them down for a “Dil Jamai”.

The crux of the problem here is the RPD road being 80 feet wide. MLA Sanjay Patil and residents of the area had given a memorandum to Mr.Bommai asking him to make it a 60 feet road. MLA Sanjay Patil’s Gomatesh Vidyapeeth will lose about 17 feet if the road is made 80 feet.

Opp. Gogte college swatantra sainik bhavan

The other side of the problem is the old Dharwad road where “Tree cutting is in progress” will be widened only to 60 feet as MLA Abhay Patil has property on the road.

DC J Ravishankar have asked both the MLA’s to work together for the betterment of the city.

After all this the local residents told this blog that they have lost faith in this BJP government and they made a mistake electing them. A resident said if these MLA’s can stop work to prevent their own loss why cannot they come forward and save the property of the citizens who have voted them and put into power.

Video courtesy: Anupam Singh

In order to sensitize the cities administration as well as the citizens about the current state of sanitation and raise awareness about the need for improvement, Govt of India has announced a National Rating of Class 1 Cities on sanitation parameters.

Releasing the rating Union Urban Development Minister, Shri Jaipal Reddy said that exercise for the rating initiated in 2009 is a part of National Urban Sanitation Policy to make Indian cities and towns totally sanitized, healthy and liveable i.e. they become Nirmal Shahars.

Belgaum with 40.510 points stood at 90^th position out of the 423 cities ranked in all and was under Black shade.

On the basis of their performance, cities have been kept in four categories that are – green, blue, black and red.

Other nearby cities to Belgaum and their ratings:

Bidar Rank 22 with 49.820 points

Udupi Rank 43 with 45.400 points

Chikmaglur Rank 46 with 45.020 points

Hospet Rank 71 with 41.820 points

Bijapur Rank 71 with 41.521 points

Belgaum Rank 90 with 40.510 points

Kolhapur Rank 136 with 38 points

Hubli-Dharwad Rank 196 with 35.230 points

Bogarves, Photo: Akash Patil

See complete list here

http://pib.nic.in/archieve/others/2010/may/d2010051101.pdf

None of the local newspapers have given the Belgaum ratings. So sometimes AAB is good.
Thanks Akash

Chandigarh got 73.48 points out of 100

Belgaum scores less than 45 points
Chandigarh has been adjudged the best city in terms of quality sanitation under the National Rating and Award Scheme for Sanitation for Indian Cities by the Ministry of Urban Development.

According to a nationwide Union Urban Development Ministry exercise, called the National City Rating under the ambitious national urban sanitation policy, the rating task was conducted across 423 urban conglomerates, including 24 in Karnataka. Mysore was on second place while Bangalore and Mangalore have bagged the 8th and 12th place. The ministry’s policy initiative was part of an objective to create awareness on hygienic conditions in urban areas. In Karnataka, Mandya (15th) and Bidar (22nd ) have found place among the 25 cleanest cities.

Udupi, Chikmaglur, Hospet,Bijapur, Belgaum, Gangavathi, Hassan, Robertsonpet, Gulbarga, Kolar, Bellary, Badravathi, Tumkur, Hubli-Dhawad, Raichur and Gadag-Betigeri, received less than 45 on a scale of hundred.

The rating was carried out by three private agencies ––AC Nielsen-ORG Marg, Development and Research Services (DRS) and CEPT University.

The City corporation from beginning of this year has taken efforts to renovate the gardens in the city and results are quite amazing after they have been renovated.
The process is still on and many gardens are still being developed under funds from various schemes.

The below images are all taken from the City corporation site which was updated (amazing site was updated).

Now a request to the public at large please maintain cleanliness and keep the gardens beautiful.

The 10 wards in which there is 24×7 water supply got a shock when they got the months water bill. For some it was even more than their electricity bill. The citizens of the 10 wards and the citizens’ forum yesterday dashed to the office of Belgaum City Corporation and took corporation commissioner on the task.

The citizens said that this water tariff hike was unreasonable, unaffordable, illogical, unscientific, irrational, unethical and totally unjustifiable and demanded the corporation to withdraw this “unacceptable” rates and restore previous rates with immediate effect. No one will pay their bills until and unless the bills are revised to the earlier rates.

The existing tariff, where the minimum monthly charges was Rs. 83 for a usage of 15,000 litres and an additional Rs. 5.60/1,000 litres, the residents have to pay Rs. 48 for 8,000 litres and Rs. 104 for 15,000 litres a month. Similarly, for different slabs of usages, the corporation has increased price by Rs. 21 to Rs. 1,005 a month.

So earlier if you used to pay Rs.83 now you will land up paying Rs.104 for the 15,000 litres of water. Which is a 25% increase.

Many citizens urged that they do not need 24×7 water supply and they would be happy with the two hour water supply.

The commissioner said that he had no powers to reduce the tariff. The citizens plan an agitation against this in the future.

Times have changed and with time, even the government officials and elected representatives have changed. Take this for example; meeting a corporation official is difficult during daytime but yesterday the whole lot of corporation officers with MLA and councilor were there to make a survey of road to be widened at night in the dark.

Late in the evening a host of cars stopped suddenly in front of the Shahpur police station and all the by standers had some great ideas about they, coming over there.

MLA Abhay Patil & Firoz Sait, Mayor, Dy.Mayor, corporation commissioner S G Patil and other officers were seen discussing about the road widening from Nath Pai circle to Vadgaon. According to sources, the road will be widened to 60 feet.

Citizens were around were amazed at the officials surveying the area at night. In addition, one senior citizen at the spot said, times have changed.

Hope times have changed for the good and not for any other reasons.

District minister Basavraj Bommai was here yesterday to review all the works taken under the special grant from the CM and also other works going on in the city to make it Mega city.
The minister this time said that he will urge the CM to give another 100 crore for the development of the city.

100 core Special grant usage:

Rs.78 crore 59 lakhs 318 have been allocated for work

Belgaum North Constituency – works worth 25 crore are being undertaken

Belgaum South constituency – works worth 39 crore are being undertaken
Minister urged the starting of the Ring road project and said he will follow the matter with the CM. He also said that there was need for a hall where Kanada program could be held and for the same he will inspect Kalamandir so that a hi-tech hall could be made.