Following widespread criticism over prefixing ‘Hubballi’ in the name boards of bus stops in Dharwad and pressure from various organisations, the Hubballi Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) has erased ‘Hubballi’ from these boards.
In the wake of a movement seeking creation of a separate municipal corporation for Dharwad, the municipal corporation had erected name boards at bus shelters mentioning ‘Hubballi-Dharwad’. The move had evoked strong reactions from various organisations and the public.
Particularly, members of the forum who have launched agitation seeking creation of separate municipal corporation had taken strong exception to the move and termed it a ploy by the authorities.
Along with them several others had raised questions over the corporation’s move and had sought to know who had given them authority to change the name of the city. They had said that the name boards would create confusion particularly among the outsiders visiting the city.
As the crtiticism grew stronger, the municipal corporation has taken steps to erase ‘Hubballi’ from the name boards and retained only Dharwad.
Ward committees
Meanwhile, the municipal corporation has issued a notification requesting citizens to come forward to form ward committees.
Municipal Commissioner B. Gopalkrishna has said on Thursday that the committees would act as watchdogs and also give suggestions to the civic body on the works to be taken up in the respective wards.
Each ward committee will have 10 members. The councillor-elect will be the chairperson, two members belonging to SC, ST, three women members and four citizens of the wards will be the members
The citizens willing to become members of the ward committee have to submit their details to the HDMC office in Hubballi or Dharwad before April 25 along with caste certificates and other documents prescribed on HDMC website hdmc.mrc.gov.in.
The municipal authorities will hold an awareness programme on ward committees and people’s participation at Dr. Mallikarjun Mansur Kala Bhavan in Dharwad at 3 p.m. on Friday.
