Bidar in the World Monument Watch.

Bidar has been included in the World Monument Watch 2014, declared by the World Monument Fund, an organisation based in New York. WMF is the leading independent organisation devoted to saving world’s treasured places. For nearly 50 years, working in 100 countries, its experts have applied proven and effective techniques to the preservation of important architectural and cultural heritage sites around the globe. Bidar is the first site in from Karnataka to be recognised by the WMF. This nomination ensures increased global attention on the heritage of the city and will motivate many agencies to come forward for preservation of the Heritage sites. Though nomination does not guarantee any funding from the WMF, they may fund some projects for the preservation of the heritage of the city. The 2014 list includes 67 sites from 41 countries. They received nominations for 741 monuments from 166 countries. Bidar is one of the three sites included from India. This nomination will lead to added international attention being bestowed upon Bidar. The nomination will bring with it a lot of expertise in planning for the conservation and preservation activities and exploiting the tourism potential of the City. This will enhance the capacity for documentation at the local level. To commemorate this, the district administration has planned to organize an International Seminar on the theme The Glory of Bidar in the second week of January 2014. The seminar is mainly intended to document various aspects of the heritage of Bidar. Further, the administration has also identified three themes for organizing heritage walks in the city. The route is formed in such a way that the group can cover the whole length in around two hours with visiting various locations. The district administration extends its heartfelt gratitude to the World Monument Fund for recognizing the City. We also appreciate the services rendered by Mr. Raykar, Executive Director, Indian Heritage Cities Network and Mr. Govindan Kutty who have motivated the district administration to fill the nomination for the WMF. They have extensively toured the city and helped us in documenting various aspects of heritage especially the Naubad Karez system and Bag-e-Hamam.

Civil Services Coaching

There are many well-known coaching Institutes in Delhi and the nearby areas providing expert coaching for civil services examination. These institutions are of two types. The first category concentrates on giving classroom teaching with the expert resource persons. They will not provide any boarding or lodging facility to the candidates. They charge a very high commercial rate for the coaching. The quality of the input given in the classroom coaching is also high. The notes and other materials given as part of their instruction is of high value to the civil services preparations. The candidates have to make their own arrangements for the room and food if taken admission in these centres. Normally they start admission to the prelims cum mains coaching programme in Oct every year. The number of students is each class can be up to 200. The second category is the institutions that are run by some universities with the assistance of the government. The intake in such institutions is limited and the quality of the classroom input is not at the level offered by the private coaching centres. However, they offer very good residential facilities and the food is also provided. The candidates need not worry about the physical facilities and they can concentrate on their studies. These centres offer good library facility with quality books. There will be a good group of students who are all preparing for the same examination. This grouping of fresher and experienced is the major strength of these centres. They charge minimal fees for the room and food and generally the coaching programme is free. The admission is through competitive tests, conducted across the country. They have certain high levels of standard with regard to the discipline. Two such reputed residential coaching centres are Hamdard Study Circle, New Delhi and Residential Coaching Centre, Aligarh. Both are considered to be good with a lot of alumni making to the Civil services every year. The Hamdard Education Society runs the Hamdard with the support from Ministry of Social Justice, mainly intended for students from minority communities. The admission is made through competitive Examination to be held on 6/10/2013, last date for application is 8 September. The application forms can be downloaded from www.hamdardstudycircle.org. Bidar is declared as the ninth Centre for the Test in the country, if sufficient number of applications is received. The Residential Coaching Academy, attached to Aligarh Muslim University is sponsored by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The programme is intended mainly for the students belonging to SC/ST/Minorities and Women categories. The admission is made through a nationwide competitive test on 14 September. The last date for filing application is 31 August. The application form can be downloaded from the website www.amu.ac.in. For further details and assistance, any interested candidates may contact the District Centre for Guidance and Training, Old Civil Hospital, Gawan Chowk, Bidar. The filled in applications along with the supporting documents can be submitted in the DC officer during the working hours. The last date for submitting the applications is fixed as 31 August for Aligarh and 4 September for Hamdard. Any application received late will not be entertained as the centres are very strict about the dates. There will be test centre in Bidar for both the screening test. Email- deo.bidar@gmail.com Please make the best use of this situation

UPSC Orientation/Coaching

The District Administration, Bidar through the District Career Guidance Centre announces a four months programme for the Training and guidance programme for the aspirants of the Civil Services Examinations being conducted by the UPSC. The focus will be prepare them for taking the exam for May 2014. We will be imparting basic coaching to the students. Later they will be encouraged to go to bigger cities like Delhi where the environment is more encouraging. The programmes will be held in the Centre for Guidance and Training, Old Civil Hospital, Near Gawan Chowk, Bidar. The candidates will be selected through a screening test to be conducted on 5 August, 2013. Those candidates who are interested to join shall register their names with the District Administration by 31 July. This follows the orientation programme conducted a few months back. Those who want to just test their skills but not interested may please keep away from applying or attending the classes. We are looking for only serious candidates as we the time and resources at our disposal are limited. Aspirants from Bidar district will be given preference though those belonging to nearby areas can apply... Registration form can be downloaded from www.bidar.nic.in The filled up form to be e-mailed to deo.bidar@gmail.com

Coaching for KMAT 2013 in Bidar

The Admission to the MBA Course is made only through the Management Aptitude Test from this year. Those who want to get admission to MBA can appear the KMAT which will be held on 21 July 2013. The last date for applying for KMAT is on 10 July and the results will be announced on 1 August. The candidates have to apply for the test online through the website http://www.kmatindia.com/. The District Administration and the MBA department of Lingaraj Appa Engineering College are jointly organising free coaching for the KMAT Examination from 3 July to 6 July. The classes will be held at the District Career Guidance and Coaching Centre at Old Civil Hospital, Near Zilla Panchayat Office. The Centre will help in filling up the application online. Students who are interested to attend the classes should be present the centre by 10:00 am on 3 July.

Public Consultation on Special Status to Hyderabad Karnataka

Cabinet Sub Committee on Special Status to Hyderabad Karnataka (article 371) is scheduled to hold a public consultation sitting in the Conference Hall of DC Office, Gulbarga on Monday 1 July 2013. The time slot allotted to Bidar district is from 10am to 12 am. Those who are interested to present their views can submit their views in writing. The write ups can be submitted to the DC office Bidar by 30/06/2013 or personally at the meeting venue by 9am in Gulbarga. Individuals and organisations are welcome. I request all the citizens of Bidar to share their ideas on the subject so that the special status to Hyderabad karnataka becomes specially meaningful to us...

Operationalisating the Airport in Bidar...

Starting the Civil aviation operations from Bidar has been a major demand from many parts of the district for some time now. The demand picked momentum about five years ago when the Govt of Karnataka proposed to start a green field airport and the process of acquiring land was initiated. However, at a later point of time, the administration came out with another proposal that would save much of the cost. The idea was to utilise the existing runway and ATC facility with the air force and provide necessary infrastructure to start civilian flight operations from Bidar. Accordingly, a proposal was submitted to the Ministry of Defence for clearance to use the air force facilities. This was accepted with certain conditions by the Ministry of Defence. Subsequent to the clearance by the Ministry of Defence, the district administration approached the state government for creating necessary infrastructure, which was readily accepted. Thus approval was given to construct the terminal building for the Bidar airport. This building was constructed after obtaining the views form the experts in the field. Though the terminal has been completed in time, the aviation operations could not be commenced due certain reasons related to the Operations of the Hyderabad airport. Thus, the civil aviation remained an ides that could not be materialised. However, still the idea was there in the minds of the people and it was being pursued at different levels of government by the political executive and the officers. The move got a good push when a meeting was held regarding this subject under the chair of the Secretary, Civil Aviation, Govt of India in the month of September. The meeting had decided to have a spot inspection jointly by all the stakeholders. Accordingly, a joint spot inspection was carried out by the representatives of the State Government, Civil Aviation, Ministry of Defence, GMR Hyderabad Airport and the district administration on 19 November. It was clear that the facilities existing would be sufficient for commencing the operations. However, clarifications need to be made regarding the commercial viability of the operations. The facts about Bidar, especially its importance due the Religious reasons and the historic reasons were presented by the district administration to the team. We estimate that there is a good demand for operationalizing the Bidar airport. The observations gathered during the spot visit and the local enquiry would be considered by the GMR before they give their opinion about the issue. Subsequently a meeting will be held to take a final call. Thus, it is one step ahead for the commencement of the flights from Bidar to certain locations.

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