Shettar demands transfer of all Civilian areas to Belagavi City Corporation

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By uday

Jagadish Shettar, MP Belagavi Met with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss a long-standing demand in Belagavi to transfer of all civilian areas/lands under the jurisdiction of the Belagavi Cantonment Board. I requested him to provide clear instructions to cantonment board officials to prepare a proposal for transferring all civilian areas to Belagavi City Corporation as per Ministry of Defence guidelines. Additionally, I asked for the identification of all civilian areas within the Belagavi Cantonment Board and the creation of a detailed proposal to be submitted to the Government of Karnataka for further progress. The Minister has rightly agreed to do the needful.


Memorandum Details submitted to Defense minister –

About the need to re-work on the Proposal of the Cantonment Board relating to the “Excision of the Civil areas from the limits of the Belagavi Cantonment”- Karnataka state

Ref: A Special Meeting convened by the Cantonment Board ,Belagavi on 6th July, 2024

Adverting to above, a Special Meeting, relating to the “Excision of the Civil Areas”, from the Limits of the Belagavi Cantonment, and transferring to City Corporation, Belagavi was convened by the Cantonment Board, Belagavi It was graced by 1) Sri Iranna Kadadi MP (Rajyasabha) 2) Sri Asif Sait MLA Belagavi (North) besides Myself. In the scheduled Meeting, the CEO Cantonment presented an Excision Plan, which comprised of handing over only 112 acres of the 1763

acres of Land to the Govt of Karnataka State. Of which, 54 acres have been occupied by the State Govt for over 100 years (For Forest Dept //RTO / Bus Terminal and Circuit House/IB). Remaining 58 acres of land is highly congested, densely populated and, almost un-manageable ie: Bazaar area.

We all Elected Representatives present voiced our serious concern and stressed upon the implementation of the Directives of the Secretary of Defence, Govt of India, dated: 25th June, 2024,

In this referred Meeting of the Defence Ministry, the Final Excision Plan adopted by the Defence Ministry for the ‘excision’, in 31 Cantonments, involved excision of the entire ‘Civil Area’ of Cantonment, not merely the “Notified Civil Area”. (The ‘Modified Civil Area’ a small subset of the total ‘Civil Area’, that has been notified for commercial use).

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Although, this decision of the Ministry of Defence is, –as mentioned in the Minutes itself -“non -negotiable”, the CEO continued to present an Excision Plan, which totally ignored the excision of the ‘Entire Civil Area’ (including Old Grant Bungalows), and only covered 112 acres of the ‘Notified Civil Area’ (out of 1763 acres of Cantonment land), out of which 58 acres has been occupied State Government for use betond 100 years before. The rest of the ‘Bazaar area’ is heavily built-up, highly congested and is just a virtual slum. In return for this 112 acres of ‘Civil Area” (notified for commercial use) the State Government is expected to provide Municipal cover and all Municipal services — without even its territorial Jurisdiction being extended to cover the vast remainder of area. Its apprehended that the Excision Plan so developed and presented CEO Cantt Belagavi may by the a) impose an exceedingly high financial burden on the Budget of the City Corporation, and, b) create a strife, when the City Corporation attempts to raise taxes, or lay underground pipelines, etc, in the territory on which it has no territorial Jurisdiction.

Objecting to the non adherence of the Govt of India directives, we Elected Representatives then demanded un-equivocally, a subsequent date for convening another Meeting on 13th July, 2024 to study the missing changes, that needs to be incorporated in the Plan presented but to no avail. The Minutes of the Meeting which presently stands circulated, do mentions nowhere the presence of we all elected Representatives and our views so raised there upon. It can thus be construed false and inaccurate In this regard, I request you, to look into the matter, and direct the concerned Cantonment Board Belagavi authorities to prepare the Excision proposal to be submitted by them , to the State Govt in 1 accordance with the directives of the Govt of India circulated, as said afore The appeal submitted by Sri P V Telkar former Regional Director, A II of LSG and Sri Sajeed Shaik Former Vice-President of Cantonment Board Belagavi is also enclosed herewith for more elaboration.

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