Belgaum: The four-member team appointed by the Government to go into the "feasibility" of holding a legislature session in north Karnataka arrived here on a two-day visit.

The team, which arrived on Monday morning, held discussions with senior officials for about an hour in the afternoon. It will inspect the proposed sites for convening the session, housing offices of Secretaries of different departments, lodging, boarding, communication, power supply conditions, etc., on Tuesday morning. The team members would receive suggestions from elected representatives, social institutions and groups and members of public at the Zilla Panchayat meeting hall from 2.30 p.m.

Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department Vinayak Sugur was the only official who made a quick presentation before the team about the infrastructure facilities. He said that it would require about Rs. 3 crore to hold the session by utilising available infrastructure and providing additional facilities such as telephones, computers with broadband Internet connectivity, faxes, furniture, printing press, media centre, rentals of hotels, transportation, etc. involving about 600 persons, including Ministers, legislators and officials for one month.

A similar report suggesting an expenditure of Rs. 2.5 crore was lying with the district administration. The report was prepared during 2003 when the late Palaksha was Deputy Commissioner.

The team will visit Gulbarga to take up a similar study during next few days.

The Government had asked the team to explore possibilities of holding the session only in two cities — Belgaum and Gulbarga. There is no proposal to take up the study for Hubli-Dharwad, Bijapur, Raichur and Bagalkot districts, a member of the team told The Hindu .

There are two aspects in the proposal to hold the session: The Government is exploring the possibility of holding the session once every year by utilising the available infrastructure on the one hand and whether to construct a new building for the purpose on the other hand. Depending upon the feasibility in each case, a decision would be taken after studying the reports in respect of Belgaum and Gulbarga.

The district administration submitted a list of readily available infrastructure, including function halls, meeting halls, hotels, transportation (air link with night landing facility), communication, power supply, residential accommodation, special rooms for Chief Minister, Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Speaker, Chief Whip and rooms for Secretaries of different departments, Ministers, Legislators, etc.

Locations suggested

One of the locations suggested by the administration is the Gandhi Bhavan in the heart of the city, whose acoustics, however, need to be improved. The Seminar Hall on the Visvesvaraya Technological University campus, 12 km from the city, could be an ideal venue for holding session of the legislative council.

Deputy Commissioner Shalini Rajneesh said there was sufficient infrastructure readily available and adequate number of guesthouses and good hotels within a radius of one kilometre from Gandhi Bhavan, including district government hospital, to hold the session. However, some "minor sacrifices" could be made keeping in view the aspirations of the people of the region.

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