In order to develop Belagavi on the lines of Bengaluru, the government has proposed to raise the number of wards in Belagavi City Corporation by including about a dozen villages adjoining the city and reorganising the existing wards based on population, officials said.
The number of wards will be raised to over 90 from the current 58. The city corporation will be later termed as Bruhat Belagavi Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) and will be eligible for more developmental funds. Belagavi will be the second city in the state to get BBMP status after Bengaluru.
Minister Jarkiholi has planned to include Hindalaga, Halaga, Bastawad, Modaga, Modaga, Sambra, Peeranwadi, Machche and Damane villages from Belagavi rural assembly constituency and Kakati, Honaga, Bennali villages from his Yamakanamaradi constituency into the city corporation. тАЬI have tabled a proposal before the Urban Development Ministry and also have instructed the Belagavi City Corporation to work on the plan,тАЭ Jarkiholi said. The city would get more funds for the development if it gets the BBMP status than the city corporations, the minister added.
Known as the second capital of the state, the wards of Belagavi have not been revised for more than 30 years. The multi-linguistic border city with 58 wards has been divided into Belagavi south, north, rural and Yamakanamaradi assembly constituencies.
The border city which was a тАЬTown Municipal CorporationтАЭ with 52 wards in 1985 was upgraded to тАЬMahanagar PalikeтАЭ (City Corporation) with revised 58 wards in 1991. Since then, though widely developed, many new localities have not been reorganised. According to the current population, the city corporation will get 75 wards. According to 2021 census, Belagavi has about seven lakh residential and four lakh floating population.
Due to lack of political interest and vision of Belagavi district politicians, Belagavi s not only the commercial hub and junction of Goa and Maharashtra states and but also has the second power centre — Suvarna Vidhan Soudha — remained undeveloped due to linguistic quarrel between Kannadigas and Marathis and border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra on Belagavi issue.
Due to the said reason, Belagavi was not developed as compared to the neighbouring Hubbali and Dharwad districts in the state and Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Despite having easy communicative modes, business and industrial atmosphere, the business class hesitated to establish business, invest funds over language and border dispute.
Former president of Chamber of Commerce and Industries Belagavi, Vikas Kalghatagi said, тАЬBelagavi is enriched with maximum resources for industrial development. The casting manufactured here has an international demand. However, the clashes between Kannadigas and Marathis is forcing the business class and investors to turn toward Kolhapur and Goa which also have industrial friendly facilities.тАЭ тАЬObtaining permission to start new industry in Goa and Maharashtra is very easy. All the requirements are available through single window system. The cost of electric power and water to the industrial sector is comparatively less which is another reason investors donтАЩt prefer Belagavi,тАЭ he said.
To overcome all such setbacks, Belagavi district in-charge minister Satish Jarkiholi proposed to raise the number of wards to 90 plus, in order to get the additional fund/aid that fixed to the major cities by the government.
An official from Belagavi City Corporation on condition of anonymity said, about 30 years ago, on an average, the population of each ward was between 25, 000 to 30,000 with about 4,000 to 5,000 voters. However, the number has now crossed 4-5 times. Therefore, if reformed, the number of existing wards on population grounds will be raised up to 75 and it will cross the 90 mark if neighbouring rural localities are added.
Ashok Chandaragi, the convenor of Kannada OrganisationsтАЩ Stearing Committee, Belagavi, who is the person to make the first Kannada and Urdu linguistic corporators as mayor and deputy mayor in 1999, told HT that the pro-Maharashtrian organisation Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) would be vanished completely if Belagavi gets the BBMP status. Earlier, Marathi linguistics, since 1984 used to be elected as mayor and deputy mayor which was blocked for the first time in 1999.
HT reached out to MES for a reaction, but couldnтАЩt get an immediate response.
The areas which minister Jarkiholi has proposed to include in the Belagavi City Corporation has equal number of Kannadigas and Marathis and the supporters of Congress and BJP, so there is no political motivation in the governmentтАЩs proposal, Chandaragi said.
тАЬThough Belagavi is termed as the second capital of the state, itтАЩs not been developed like Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubbali and Dharwad. Once it gets BBMP status, unique changes can be seen with flowing of funds from government as well from investors,тАЭ Chandaragi added.
