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An epitome of wrong Priorities for Belgaum

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by Akash Patil

Belgaumites ask for a decent Bus stand and not IT park

I request Mr. Satish Jarkhiholi the district incharge minister to visit our Central Bus Stand (CBS) before even mulling over installing 50 posh city bus stops at various places and if possible travel in those rickety buses which are nothing but rattling bucket of bolts.

busstandBus stand woes

Let me be frank here. I bet many of us cover our mouth and nose as we alight at CBS Belgaum. The dingy toilets at one corner, the dirt track only bettered by each axle with time, nasty auto drivers ready to loot, poor display boards, poor information system, and poor traffic management outside CBS describes it.

As belgaumites we are used to it and the usual “who cares”,”elected representatives don’t care” kind of the thing follows. Ever wondered what impression outsiders carry of this beautiful city?

My friend recently visited Belgaum for some work and as a passionate Belgaumite, I was eagerly waiting for him to give his honest feedback about the city in general, but to my disappointment the review was not pleasant. He spoke negative about the place first and that sole negative happened to be CBS and the rickety city buses doing rounds which only erased the best of Belgaum in his mind.

Belgaum is frequented by people from various parts of the state and neighboring states for education, medical, entertainment and business related works. It has a huge floating population and If this is how we greet them, expect no good impression for them to carry back.

My stance on no IT park first but a neat Bus stand is sure to irk a lot of (Belgaum) IT engineers who are put up in Bangalore or other IT hubs.

 

Cattle grazing in the IT park
Cattle grazing in the IT park Desur

IT Park, a welcome move! But wait….

Yes, Mr SR Patil the IT minister is making sincere efforts to promote IT in Tier two cities, for which we wish him good luck in his endeavour.

But he also needs to be cautioned over the failure of IT parks taking wings in various parts of the state. For instance, Shimoga IT park is partly occupied by changing BPO firm, while most of the floors lie vacant, Hubli IT park at its first look gives a more of VRL go down scene, While Aryabhatta IT park in Hubli has done some headway, Gulbarga IT park is also a non starter. With such track record, pursuing the matter further needs a reality check.

IT needs an ecosystem, does belgaum have it?

Bangalore the state capital inspite of hosting better infrastructure, we have seen IT cos cribbing and whining over its infrastructure. Can Belgaum even pass the basic test? It is debatable. Better infrastructure means better ecosystem for industries? I feel Yes.

We want an IT Park and a bus stand too, the case would have been easier only if belgaum had a money printing press for itself .Unfortunately, funds are hard to get for Tier two cities in general. Now the choice is left to Belgaumites.

I don’t want my post to be a big rant, now let me take views of fellow Belgaumites.

8 thoughts on “An epitome of wrong Priorities for Belgaum”

  1. The fact that are highlighted by you are practical ones. We need food first then fancy stuff to garnish our hair.. the condition of belgaum is like that, basic infra should be given top priorities rather than waiting for the s/w companies to invest. same is the condition with HUbli

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  2. Well you spoke about buses very well but what about roads which the buses run on..? What about the condition/size of those..? If anyone has entered Kolhapur recently, they will know what kind of entrance the city has.. Each and every road of Belgaum is overcrowded and needs widening.. Everytime the railway gates close, well I need not speak about what happens then..

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  3. U r right Mr Patil… you can compare Belgaum with any other cities in Maharashtra, u will find how backward Belgaum is compared to cities like Kolhapur, Nasik, Aurangabad, Solapur, Ahmadnagar, Amaravati etc tier 2 cities in Maharashtra. Merging with Maharashtra is the solution for this issue.
    On the other hand except for Bangalore, Mysore and to some extent Hubli none of the cities in Karnataka are showing signs of development.
    Please think.

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  4. Dear Akash impressive analogy presented by you, but I am not sure how far our public representative will take interest in developing Belgaum,

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  5. Very well written Akash!
    Yes, it’s very unfortunate that our leaders promise and do stuff which is not really needed but forget the basic needs and issues. They always have some hidden agenda when they do these kinds of things.
    However I am surprised that some people can think about regional issue in this. No point in comparing places like kolhapur – they may be marginally better. What we need is clean, better and efficient facilities which unfortunately none of our Indian cities provide.

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  6. Well I could not agree more. It all boils down as to what we sow is what we will reap (basic strong education to our kids). Citizens of belgaum should vote and get rid of the rouge politicians, elect someone who is educated and knows the law. This will never happen in our generation. Good luck for the next generation.

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  7. Mr . Akash , well written man But before That in bgm , Kannada speakers are Disappearing , Wts the reason behind That , may i know Pls

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