Karnataka - Bangalore   

Forget Bangalore; it will become Bengaluru soon

Special Correspondent

Anglicised names of 12 other cities, towns too will change

Bangalore: Bangalore will soon become Bengaluru. The anglicised names of 13 cities and towns in the State, including Bangalore, are expected to be changed in about a week.

Disclosing this to pressperson here on Friday, Kannada and Culture Minister H.S. Mahadeva Prasad said all the Central agencies and Union Ministries concerned had approved the proposal and sent their clearances to the Union Home Ministry. The Home Ministry was expected to forward the clearances to the State Government any time now, he said.

Once that was done, the State Cabinet would formally approve the new names, he explained.

The idea was first suggested when N. Dharam Singh was the Chief Minister. His successor, H.D. Kumaraswamy, made a formal announcement during the golden jubilee celebrations of the State’s formation on November 1, 2006. The proposal to change the names of the cities and towns was forwarded to the Union Home Ministry in October 2006 itself.

Other cities whose anglicised names will change include Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Shimoga, Bellary and Hospet.

Mr. Prasad was unhappy with Maharashtra objecting to the move to rename the border district of Belgaum as Belagavi. Changing names of cities and towns was the prerogative of the States concerned. Permission from the Centre was only a formality, he said.

The Minister asserted that the world Kannada meet, scheduled to be held in September in Belgaum, would not be postponed again. The Chief Minister would hold a meeting on Monday to finalise the dates for the meet.

He said the Government would finalise the tune and format for the State anthem (nada geethe) in about two months based on the recommendations of an expert committee. The State anthem now has three tunes.

Mr. Prasad said the Janapada Jatre would resume after the monsoon. An expert committee, formed to organise the jatre, would soon hold a meeting to decide when it should be resumed, he said. The meeting would chalk out a plan to take the jatre from Bangalore to other areas of the State.

He defended the move by Mysore district in-charge Minister G.T. Deve Gowda to hold a Mysore Habba (festival). Congress leader H. Vishwanath had argued that such a festival would become a parallel event to the Dasara celebrations. Mr. Prasad said Mysore Habba was only a district-level festival where artistes from the district would get a platform to exhibit their talent. Dasara was a bigger event where artistes from various parts of the State took part.

The Minister described the statement by his wife opposing the thermal power plant at Chamalapura in Mysore district as her personal view. He would abide by the decision taken by the Government, he said.

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