VENUE: The Kumar Gandharva Rangamandir in Belgaum where the Government has decided to hold the legislature session.

BELGAUM: The Government's decision to hold a legislature session here has put the administration under pressure to make arrangements for the five-day historic event to be held during the last week of September.

The Government has selected the Kumar Gandharva Rangamandir to hold the Assembly session .

Though officials were expecting the Government to hold the session in Belgaum some time in December, the early date came as a surprise.

During his visit to Belgaum, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had promised to hold a special legislature session this year and had directed the district administration to identify land for a new building to conduct sessions at least once a year. A four-member team consisting of G.K. Bore Gowda, secretary, Department of Parliamentary Affairs and Legislative Reforms; G. Dakshina Moorthy, director, Karnataka Institute for Law and Parliamentary Reforml; S.B. Patil, additional secretary of State Legislative Assembly; and V. Shreesh, additional secretary, Karnataka Legislative Council, visited Belgaum on June 12 and 13 .

They were here to study the feasibility of holding the session and submitted a favourable report to the Government.

The authorities are under pressure to ensure accommodation for about 1,000 people, including Ministers, legislators, staff of the secretariat and special rooms for the Speaker, Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Chief Whip. Facilities such as telephones, computers with broadband Internet connectivity, faxes, furniture, printing press, media centre and transportation need to be arranged.

Officials are confident of making all arrangements two or three days before the session commences. They told The Hindu here on Thursday that apart from guesthouses and hotels, accommodation would be arranged in taluk headquarter towns and Hubli-Dharwad within a radius of 100 km from Belgaum city. The session will cost Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 3 crore.

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