Kolhapur Municipal Corporation

Kolhapur municipality was established on 12 October 1854. Establishment of municipality initiated planning of modern Kolhapur city of Maharashtra state. Efforts were done with elaborate planning to develop stable and comfortable city life. The radiant indication of modern enhancement of city growth, happiness, health and beauty started reflecting in various fields.

Corporation Election 2015

Political Performance in Election 2015 ^[1]

S.No.	Party Name	Party flag or symbol	Number of Corporators
01	Indian National Congress (INC)		23
02	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) +		15
03	Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)		15
04	Shiv Sena (SS)		04
05	Independents		3

The period from 1941 to 1944 was the golden period in the history of municipality. There were major changes in various fields. In the three-year election of March 1941, local self-government was established. A control board of three persons i.e. Bhai Madhavrao Bagal, Seth Govindrao Korgaonkar, Shri Ratnappa Kumbhar, was appointed in it. Motto of this board "To reserve the society without any discrimination. There is no linking of this board to any political organization. Whatever rights are confessed by government to citizens should be utilized fully is prime duty of the board." is declared in the board's manifesto.

Progress of Corporation

The period from 1954 to 71 was the period of speedy growth of Kolhapur city. It is seen that the municipality moved towards corporation status during this period. It is seen from records that in 1960, there were 44 members in municipality. Out of them 37 were from general category, 3 from reserved backward category and 4 from women reserved category. The municipal working was based on administrative triangle of general body meeting, chief officer and standing committee. Engineers, health officers, account officers, supervisors, octroi and tax officers used to help Chief officer. In 1956- c57, the annual income of municipality was Rs. 33,21,213 through taxes and other means, and the expenditure was Rs. 29,29,161. This indicates the growing business of municipality. During this period network of roads was constructed in the city. New bridges were constructed as per requirement. Water supply was made more effective. New markets, gardens were constructed to make the city more beautiful.

Effective growth in industrialization in Kolhapur resulted in starting a new industrial era, due to devoted efforts of Y. P. Pawar, Mhadba Mistri, Tatya Shinde, and Late. Rambhai Samani. The large area of Udyam nagari was busy in preparing machinery and spare parts. The products from Kolhapur Industrial Estate started getting exported to number of Asian and African companies. Municipality helped the growth of industry in many ways.

During this period only Shivaji University was established at the hands of Dr. Radhakrishnan in 1962. Thus municipality helped in restructuring industry and education. In December 1972 the municipal council was dissolved.

Corporation during Administrative Rule

On 15th Dec. 1972, the municipal council was converted into corporation. The corporation was need of the time to solve growing urban problem due to growing population. During 1972-78, Dwarkanath Kapoor, Shri N. M. Devsthale, Shri D. T. Joseph, Shri V. N. Makhija worked as administrators. Revised city development plan is the main success of corporation. The suburb towns were planned as per town development plan scheme of 1960. The displaced citizens were rehabilitated properly.

Era of elected body of members

In August 1978, the first people elected corporation was formed in true sense. During this period, Shri Babasaheb Kasabekar (1978-79), Shri Nanasaheb Yadav, (1979-80), Late Shri D. N. Kanerkar (1980), Baburao Parkhe (1980-81), Prof. Shri Subhash Rane were mayors and they contributed significantly in the development of Kolhapur city.

References