BANGALORE: Have you passed through this circle in Chandra Layout? It is called Swami Vivekananda Circle and also Ganapathi Temple Circle.
The confusion over names is thanks to two councillors who belong to different parties and also different wards — Attibele ward and Nagarbhavi ward.
The junction connects West of Chord Road on one side and Nagarbhavi on the other while the third road leads to Gangondanahalli and the fourth to Vijayanagar.
What leads to the confusion is the war of boards: three installed by the BJP and three others by the Congress. Of the six boards at the circle, three say Swami Vivekananda Circle, Nagarbhavi ward in Govindarajnagar constituency and has councillor Umesh Shetty (BJP) and MLA Priya Krishna’s (Congress) names’ painted on it. The other three boards say Ganapathi Temple Circle, Attiguppe ward in Vijayanagar Assembly constituency, and bear the names of MLA M Krishnappa and councillor K Doddanna, both from Congress.
Doddanna said that since the circle comes under his ward, they have the authority to name it. But Umesh Shetty claimed that the BBMP Council had approved the change of name four months ago. “As a councillor, Doddanna should know the boundary of the ward he represents. This 80-feet road falls in my ward. We wanted to name the circle after Swami Vivekananda on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary. One should not politicise this issue,” Shetty said.
“I am not against the temple. When I was chairman of the Town Planning Standing Committee, Doddanna was a member. The proposal on naming the circle after Swami Vivekananda came up at the committee for approval. Doddanna could have opposed it then. After the committee approved, it came to the council for approval and then too, no one opposed it. Now, after we have renamed the circle and painted the boards, they have installed another set of boards next to it. They are wasting the BBMP’s money,” he said.
What Do The Residents Want?
Chandra Layout Residents’ Welfare Association had applied to the BBMP to name it as Ganapathi Temple Circle as the nearby temple is a well-known landmark. “We are not against Umesh Shetty’s choice. Since he got approval for it, the name can be used elsewhere in the city,” the association said.
A resident of Nagarbhavi, Swaroopa Venkatesh, who works with a private firm, said, “When friends visiting our house take that route, they are confused as this circle has two names. The BBMP should end this confusion and give one name to the circle.”
‘Govt Nod is Final’
BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana said when a road or circle has to be named, it should be approved first by the Standing Committee for Town Planning and then by the Council. Then it is sent to the state government for final approval.
When asked about the two names, he said he is not aware of which name the government has approved. “We will keep the name that is approved by the government and remove the other,” he added.