Third phase of demolition drive in Hubli ends

Third phase of demolition drive in Hubli ends
The Hindu

END TO VIOLATIONS: A structure in Deshpande Nagar being brought down during the demolition drive which concluded in Hubli on Friday.

HUBLI: The third phase of the demolition drive to clear encroachments on Hubli roads concluded on Friday with about 5,000 illegal structures having been demolished in three days.

Barring a solitary incident of a corporation official being manhandled by an irate crowd near Ramesh Bhavan in Keshwapur, the drive passed off peacefully.

It was stated that the official was attacked by the crowd which suspected that he was demolishing more than what was necessary.

The local corporator and the Congress leader in the corporation Council, Yamanur Gudihal, intervened to defuse the situation.

Unlike the first two days, there was an appreciable reduction in the number of policemen deployed. However, Narayan Nadumani, Commissioner of Police, and his Deputy, Ravikante Gowda, were present with the corporation Commissioner, P. Manivannan, who was monitoring the work.

In the morning, encroachments on Niligen Road (KC Circle to Traffic Police Station), Swimming Pool to the railway under bridge via Cotton Market and Gujarat Bhavan, Rangamandir to the railway under bridge via Lokappana Hakkal, and Hosur to APMC Yard (National Highway 4) and the road from Unakal Cross to Sainagar were cleared.

And in the afternoon, encroachments on Club Road (KC Circle to Sarvodaya Circle), Keshwapur to the railway under bridge (via Hotel Woodland), Sarvodaya Circle to Ramesh Bhavan on Kusugal Road via Badaminagar, Shanthi Colony to Gopanakoppa (Sulla Road Cross to Gopanakoppa Bus Stand) and the road from Bhavani Nagar railway under bridge to Nrupatunga Betta were cleared.

Mixed response to SFI bundh

Mixed response to SFI bundh

Deccan Herald News Service Bangalore:

The bundh call given by Student Federation of India (SFI) on Thursday in protest against the Supreme Court verdict banning government quota in professional colleges evoked mixed response across the state.

Most of schools and colleges functioned as usual in all the major cities including Bangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Mysore and Mangalore.

However the SFI activists took out protest rallies across the State and submitted memorandum demanding a central legislation empowering state governments to fix quota in private professional colleges to safeguard the interest of poor and weaker sections of society.

In Dharwad SFI activists took out a rally and burnt the effigy of the state government.

In Mangalore, the bundh-call evoked poor response even though three High Schools and one college in the outskirts remained closed. The activists also held a demonstration in front of the DC office.

Publisher moots Kannada books for Frankfurt fair

Publisher moots Kannada books for Frankfurt fair
The Times of India


Dharwad: The president of Karnataka State Publishers Association, Ramakant Joshi, has urged the state government to get important literary works in Kannada translated and exhibit them at the 58th Frankfurt book fair scheduled to be held in Germany in October 2006.
Joshi told reporters here, after 20 years, India has been invited to participate in the international book fair as a guest of honour. The National Book Trust and Federation of Indian Publishers have appealed to the Indian publishers to get important works translated.
The last date for booking space in the Indian Pavilion is August 31, 2005. Joshi said the government should get one work each of seven Jnanapith awardees from Karnataka translated into German language, publish them and display it at the Frankfurt book fair. Totally, 10 to 15 books can be translated, he said.
Two famous Kannada writers, a reputed publisher and the chairman of Kannada Book Authority should be sent to the Frankfurt book fair.
He said he had approached the director of department and Kannada and Culture and chairman of Kannada Book Authority. Joshi said Rangachari, the Indian ambassador to Germany, had taken interest in Indian language works being projected at the Frankfurt fair.

Pick-up facility from old bus stand may be withdrawn

Pick-up facility from old bus stand may be withdrawn
The Hindu

HUBLI: The North-West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) has decided to withdraw the pick-up and dropping facility for passengers to and from the old bus stand complex in Hubli near Rani Kittur Chennamma Circle. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the City Infrastructure Improvement Committee here recently.

The committee decided at the meeting chaired by Deputy Commissioner Gourav Gupta to stop the facility from the middle of September and move the Dharwad city bus stand to the new premises on the National Highway. P. Manivannan, Commissioner of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, who holds additional charge as Managing Director of the NWKRTC, also attended the meeting. Mr. Manivannan was not available for comments.

The dilemma of bus passengers began when the new bus stand located at Gokul on the western fringe of Hubli was commissioned during the fag-end of the J.H. Patil regime in April 1999.

The NWKRTC authorities shifted all mofussil bus operations to the new venue. Bus passengers found the new arrangement cumbersome and inconvenient as the new bus stand is not in the heart of the city. Also, the facilities at the new bus stand were woefully inadequate and continue to be so.

Furore

This led to a furore with people demanding that the bus stand be shifted back to the old venue. Also, private operators made hay by cashing in on the inconvenience of the travellers. The NWKRTC was forced to introduce the pick-up facility from the old bus stand.

This proved to be mutually beneficial as the passengers found it inconvenient to board buses from the old bus stand, which is centrally located and well-connected. The NWKRTC, to its surprise, found that it could make good its loss of income necessitated by the change of venue of the bus stand.

K.S. Sharma, president of the Akhila Karnataka Rajya Raste Sarige Mahamandala, is critical of the move and described it as retrograde.

Campaign

Prof. Sharma said it is because of the campaign carried out by his organisation that the management was forced to introduce the pick-up facility for passengers.

This increased the revenue of the corporation by Rs. 1 lakh a day from Hubli alone, he said.

The NWKRTC, which has already yielded ground to private operators as far as city services is concerned, will further lose if the pick up facility is withdrawn.

The move on the part of the NWKRTC to run shuttle services between the old and the new bus stand for the convenience of mofussil travellers is also impractical as none of the passengers saddled with luggage will be in a position to travel on their own.

Prof. Sharma said his organisation will take up the issue with the Transport Minister soon.