Bangalore to become Bengaluru in a week’s time - Minister

The city of Bangalore is all set to become Bengaluru in about a week’s time.

Disclosing this to reporters, Karnataka’s Minister for Kannada and Culture H S Mahadev Prasad said the State Government’s decision to change the anglicized names of Bangalore and twelve other cities in the State had reached the last phase with all the Departments of the Federal Government clearing the proposal.

“It is been approved by all the Departments with the Railways formally clearing it on Thursday”, Prasad told reporters. The Federal Department for Home Affairs is now expected to issue a notification in the regard in one week’s time, he added.

As soon as the Federal Government issues the notification, the State Cabinet will formally rename Bangalore as Bengaluru and twelve other cities in Karnataka. The other cities whose angilicized names will be officially replaced with new names include Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Gulbarga, Shimoga, Belgaum and Hospet. They will be called as Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubbali, Kalburgi, Shivamogga, Belagavi and Hosapete respectively.

Mahadev Prasad brushed aside the opposition to rename Belgaum as Belavi raised by Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi, which has urged Maharashtra Government to act tough of the Karnataka Government’s move. “Changing the names of cities was the prerogative of the States concerned. Permission from the Federal Government was only a formality”, he remarked.

Karnataka Government had decided to replace the anglicized name of Bangalore to a more local Bengaluru during the 50th formation year of Karnataka on November 1 2006 after Kannada litterateurs had reasoned that Bengaluru came to be called as Bangalore after the colonial rulers found it difficult to pronounce the original name properly.

The Karnataka Government has also made it clear that the move to replace the anglicized names was in tune with similar changes effected by governments of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, which renamed their capitals as Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata respectively a few years ago.