Citizen’s Charter is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of the Organization towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, Information, Choice and Consultation, Non-discrimination and Accessibility, Grievance Redress, Courtesy and Value for Money. This also includes expectations of the Organization from the Citizen for fulfilling the commitment of the Organization.

Belgaum Citizens charter -

See charter here

Now you all know how much time is required for which work.

Following the successful venture in Bangalore of Bangalore One centers, which offer various services, including bill payment and passport, he said the similar initiative would be launched in four-second tier cities of Mysore, Bangalore, Mangalore, Shimoga and Belgaum.

It was planned to open centres in Mysore, where five locations have been identified, Mangalore, Belgaum and Shimoga. E-governance would be implemented in government departments from the district level to the State Secretariat this year, and later it would be done from the gram panchayat to district level.

12, 33, 64,000 (12 crores 33 lakhs 64 thousand) have been spent by the government exchequer for the assembly session held in Belgaum from 16 to 24 January 2009.

For the 9 days a sum of Rs. 91, 83, 108 (91 lakhs 83 thousand 108) were spent on the food for the Ministers and other officials. So a sum of Rs.1100 was spent per person per day.

 The PWD spent Rs.2, 98, 50, 000 for the roads. The administration had ordered for laying of roads which were not repaired in the past 3 years but the same roads were repaired again using these funds.

Bedsheets, beds worth Rs.30 lakhs were bought for the MLA’s.
Rs.2,84,998 were spent on buying Napkins. After the session was over the administration said that the beds etc will be given to district hospitals and hostels.

 For building the assembly halls M/s Raja enterprises Bangalore were paid a rent of Rs.1,79,77,000. When the previous assembly session was held the order for the hall building was given to the same company.

Rs.18,76,468 were spent on fuel and Rs.16,37,426 were spent as rentals for various cars.

Rs.12 lakh forty thousand were given to the corporation for street lighting & Rs.3 lakh 75 thousand to the Kannda culture department for organizing cultural events.

 Last time in 2006 a sum of Rs. 5 crores were spent and this time for the January session 12 cores were spent.

 All this info was given out by Bhimmappa Gadad who had filed an RTI. He also alleged that there could be misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs.2 crores. He will follow up the matter with the Lokayukta he added.

Session loses steam on day two- Express Buzz
Attendance in both the houses of the state legislature was thin on the second day of the session on Saturday, as most of the members from North Karnataka left for their constituencies, while quite a few like former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and leader of the opposition Mallikarjuna Kharge were not present, due to their pre-scheduled engagements.

 

Kannada Prabha -

Netas turn fitness freaks- TOI

Jogging, walking, meditation and some gymming. All these fitness activities are part of our netas, who are camping in Belgaum for the winter legislature session.

Marathis are safe here, says Yeddyurappa- The Hindu
Kannadigas and Marathis united on land, water issues. Only precautionary steps taken in view of the legislature session’. Marathis in Karnataka are as safe as they are in Maharashtra’

Seven Bills get consent- The Hindu
The seven Bills passed by the Karnataka legislature between July 1, 2007 and August 22, 2008 have been accorded consent by the President and the Governor.

MES will continue its fight: N.D. Patil- The Hindu
Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) will continue its struggle till it gets “justice” on the boundary dispute, senior MES leader from Maharashtra N.D. Patil has said.

MLAs fight over food habits- TOI
What started as obituary references to leaders who died fighting terrorists in Mumbai on 26/11 led to discussion of food habits of MLAs; and it all ended in an unsavoury trading of words between legislators from the North and the South, in the assembly on Saturday. 

Cong to back JD(S) for council poll- TOI
It’s payback time for the Congress to the JD(S)! But it will be issue-based and not a open invitation on alliance. 

This time it seems the Border row is taking its own route. In Thane, Maharashtra the members of the Bhartiya Vidyarthi Sena did a Gandhigiri style demonstration by giving roses to all the drivers and Commuters of all KSRTC busses plying from Thane towards Karnataka.

All pics taken from Star Majha and IBN Lokmat.

This is my endeavor to give you news about Belgaum from where ever it is. This is an unbiased news report. I have tried to post stories related to the Assembly from various news papers and websites. This is also a part of the same endeavor.

Gays to present demands to CM- Times of India
Gay community members plan to appeal to the Yeddyurappa government to treat them on equal terms and help them live a dignified life.

Sena warns of snapping ties with BJP over boundary row- PTI
Mounting pressure on its ally over the border row issue, the Shiv Sena today warned BJP that it would snap ties with it if its government in Karnataka continued to “torture” Marathi-speaking people.

CM STAYS BABUS’ IDEA OF FLYING DAILY – Star of Mysore online
B.S. Yeddyurappa is learnt to have stalled the idea of senior officers in travelling daily by air from Bangalore to Belgaum to attend the joint legislature session being held there. The session will be on for eight days and staying so long in Belgaum was a tough proposition, with the facilities created being not up to the standard expected. Added to that, the city had scarcity of good accommodation, felt the top brass.

History repeats itself at Belgaum- ExpressBuzz

 It was a typical winter morning in Belgaum, only the city was decked up with posters of BJP leaders and thousands of saffron flags — the Belgaum session got under way on Friday.

Plans will be revealed during Budget- Express Buzz
B S Yeddyurappa defended the Governor’s speech to the joint legislature session on Friday, which did not have any information on major programmes planned, saying that the government thought it would be better to announce the programmes in the budget, instead of announcing it in the Governor’s address.

Siddu issues another deadline to Congress- Express Buzz
Disgruntled Congress leader Siddaramaiah has done it again. He has set a deadline of January 25 for the Congress high command to accord him a suitable position to match his stature.  In the past also he had set a deadline for the Congress, which the high command ignored, following which he decided to stay away from the bypoll campaign.

Forget recession, govt promises the moon – Express Buzz

The economic slowdown will not deter the government from continuing developmental works in the state, said Governor Rameshwar Thakur while addressing the joint session of the Karnataka Legislature on Friday.  The money will be made available from within the framework of the Fiscal Responsibility Act

The photos of the assembly session.

BSY visited all the statues in the city.

“Kunda Nagri” that is how all the Kannada media channels are calling Belgaum, a distinct name by its own.

Huge cut outs of BJP leaders have been put all over the city especially from college road to JNMC. The cut-outs BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani can be seen at major locations in the city, giving an impression that the party is in election mode

Congress leaders A.B. Patil, Feroz Sait, and Anil Potdar wanted to know whether the Government was holding the legislature session or a BJP convention.

The MES has planned a Maha Mellava at the Lele (Subhash Chandra Bose) grounds has been turned into a fortress. About 200 policemen have surrounded the ground and no one can enter the ground.

Barricades have been put on the roads leading to the ground. No is being allowed to go on the ground. The MES has called in for the Maha Mellava at 12pm as time passes by the atmosphere will get hotter there.

In continuance of my all India media coverage of Belgaum during the Assembly session, here are some interesting points.

The national media is not covering the assembly as it yet to start, its giving great importance to the other issues like MES maha Mellava. Yesterday I had posted news bites from PTI; see a part from Bangalore Mirror.

The Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary row could whip up passions yet again. The day: Friday. The place: Belgaum. For, the state government will hold its winter session of legislature in the border district.

The same day, the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) plans to hold the Marathi Mahamellav. The MES (splinter group) is staging the rally in protest against Karnataka holding its winter session in Belgaum.

Sonia Narang, SP, said, “We have not granted permission to the MES. In 2006, permission had been granted and things had gone worse. This time, we don’t want to take risks. It is left to the government to allow them to hold the rally or not. We have taken all security measures.”

A meeting of the Marathas will be held at Lele Grounds, Tilakwadi on Jan 16 in Belgaum.

The MES has split due to the denial of tickets in the recent Assembly polls. One of the MES factions is led by Kiran Thakur, editor of Marathi newspaper ‘Tarun Bharat’. Its members are: Vijay More and Shivaji Sunthkar, former Belgaum mayors; B I Patil, former MLA; and Kiran Saynak, T K Patil and Narayan Kitwadkar, all corporators.The other faction is led by former Maharashtra minister Prof N D Patil. He has the backing of Manohar Kinyekar, Narayanrao Tarale, Digambar Patil and Vasantrao Patil, all former MLAs; Maloji Ashtekar, former Belgaum mayor; and Deepak Dalvi, a senior MES leader.

Source: Bangalore Mirror

Media Coverage: Continued…

All the news media have taken into context the PTI news bite and added their own reports to it.

See this on from Outlookindia – http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?651718

One more on the same lines from Zeenews -http://www.zeenews.com/states/2009-01-14/498784news.html

The Karnataka Govt. citing the danger of a law and order situation has arrested Ex MLA and MES leader Manohar Kinekar, last night. Other couple of other MES leaders was also arrested with him.

The state govt, has denied the MES permission for the parallel Maha Mellava and hence these arrests. A few more could be arrested today.

There is huge police establishment in Belgaum since yesterday and Belgaum is turning into a fortress. About 4000 police personal have been called in for duty to Belgaum from various other places. Rapid Action force has also been called in.

The situation could get hotter through the day.

Even after the arrests the MES claims it will hold the maha Mellava, may what come.

Source inputs Tarun Bharat & Pudhari

This bit of news seems to be a continuing coverage of PTI of the issue.

I am posting this on this blog as the same will be covered by the national media, and the manner in which it is covered is important to us. But I personally liked the heading of the post (Karnataka gives politicians chance to revive border row).

Karnataka’s decision to hold an assembly session in Belgaum from January 16, has given politicians a fresh opportunity to rake up the long standing border dispute with Maharashtra which is now pending with the Supreme Court.The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) and some Maharashtra politicians such as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chagan Bhujbal have for long been agitating to realise their demand for merger of 856 villages and towns of Karnataka, including Belgaum, Karwar and Nippani with Maharashtra.

However, MES failed to win a single seat in the Marathi-dominated areas in last year’s assembly elections and the emotive appeal of the issue seems to have lost traction with the younger generation of Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka.

Bhujbal, one of the leading lights of the agitation in the ’80s, however, told PTI it was wrong to say the movement has lost its relevance just because the MES is not in control of the Belgaum municipality and was without representation in the Karnataka Assembly.

While MES believes the Karnataka move is aimed at thwarting their “just” struggle, Karnataka, sees the session as an opportunity to remove the feeling of alienation among the Marathi-speaking people of Belgaum and at the same time assert its right over the city.

This will be the second time when a Karnataka assembly session will be held in Belgaum. Former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had decided to hold the first one at the end of 2007 while announcing that Belgaum would be developed as the second capital of Karnataka and Rs 100 crore would be spent for its development.

The delay in arriving at an amicable solution to the boundary row was due to political and electoral interests of national parties in both the states, Bhujbal said.

“Delay is inevitable, but justice is important. The matter is now pending before the Supreme Court and the State Government is pressing for an early solution,” he added.

Maharashtra has a rightful claim over Belgaum and other areas on the basis of language and geographical continuity, said Bhujbal.

Even as the dispute awaits the Supreme Court verdict, pro-merger Marathi politicians are hopeful that justice will be done and the court’s judgment will go in their favour.

Source: http://newsx.com/story/41455