Junagadh Municipal Corporation Election 2009

Congress today managed to ensure comfortable victory in the elections of Mayor and other office bearers in the Junagadh Municipal Corporation 2009. The elections in this small corporation had assumed considerable significance as Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had thrown all his weight in the civic elections and later in the mayoral elections also.

Though, for the first time after ten years Congress had won in the civic elections defeating the ruling BJP, leaders of BJP tried to make all efforts to turn table against Congress in the mayoral election. Congress had problem of selecting office bearers because of plenty of aspirants and BJP wanted to cash in on this.

However, ultimately Satish Virda(Satish Ahir) who is fondly called Satish Captain was elected mayor, Girish Kotecha deputy mayor and Bhagabhai Rada chairman of the Standing Committee. Former Deputy Chief Minister Narhari Amin and party general secretary Nishit Vyas were sent from here to oversee the entire process.

In the 51 member committee BJP has 21 members while Congress 26. Among the rest three are of BSP and one independent. However, in the mayoral election BJP candidates got 21 and all the rest (30) went to Congress.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi had tried his best to retain Junagadh Municipal Corporation for two reasons. It was to negate the effect of not so good performance of BJP in Gujarat in Lok Sabha elections and to set the ball rolling for bye elections to seven Assembly seats scheduled for September this year.

The leader of the opposition will be Mahendra Mashroo BJP MLA Junagadh.

Junagadh City District Tourism News

Gujarat will lead in tourism in next five years

Tourism Minister Jay Narain Vyas today claimed that pro tourism policies of the state will make Gujarat a leading state in the country in next five years. He said that massive investment was being made in infrastructure and tourism circuit development which will take Gujarat to the top position.

Vyas was talking at launch ceremony of newly formed Gurjarat Tourism Development Society. The organization has been set up by people with passion for tourism with sole objective to promote tourism in Gujarat and among Gujaratis.

He said that it was a fact that Gujarat was not among first five states in the country in the field of tourism. It was not because of any problem but because of the fact that after its formation in 1960, Gujarat had to concentrate on other priorities. But tourism is Gujarat’s priority now, he said.

Giving details of the steps the government had been taking, he said that the budget of tourism department which was less than Rs 50 crore has now been Rs 160 crore. In addition to this there were scheme for the development of tourist destinations with budget of billions of rupees. For instance, he said that for Junagadh area along there was a scheme of Rs 600 crore.

Tourism offers more employment than other industries, he said. An investment of Rs ten lakh in agriculture generates employment for 59, in industry for 45 people but tourism gives employment to 89.

Talking about circuit tourism, he said that it existed in India for hundreds of years. Chaar Dham yatra and such pilgrimages were the best examples. But, Indian never looked at them from business point of view. Change in the approach would make circuit tourism very paying, according to Vyas.

Sakkar Baug Zoo Junagadh City News

Vadodara zoo hunts for tiger.

Six months after the only male tiger at the Vadodara zoo died, the zoo authorities have started a hunt for a new male big cat so as to continue with the captive breeding.

At present, Sayaji Baug Zoo officials are shortlisting the zoos that have excess number of male tigers. Once the list is finalized, the zoo authorities would initiate the procedure to seal the deal by exchanging animals.

Curator C B Patel told Newsline, “After Gabbar (the tiger) died, there was no question of captive breeding as the rest were all female. Now, we are planning to bring a male tiger.”

The last tiger was brought from a Rajkot zoo. “Two cubs were born after mating between Gabbar and a tigress,” said another zoo official.

Sources, meanwhile, said that this time, a Junagadh zoo might be approached for the exchange. “The Sakkar Baug Zoo has a male tiger in excess and it can be transferred to the Vadodara zoo. However, it all depends on what plans Vadodara zoo officials have and how they would like to execute it,” said an official at the Rajkot zoo.

In normal circumstances, the official said, whenever any zoo demands animal from other zoo, it is supposed to give one, too. “It is true that we have to make arrangement for an animal that we can give to the zoo from where we would demand the male tiger. However, that will not be a problem for us, as we would make the arrangement from the animals available with us,” said a senior VMC official.