BENGALURU: The state government on Friday notified the change in names of 12 cities and towns, including Bangalore, Belgaum and Mysore. The new names will come into effect on Saturday, to coincide with the 59th Kannada Rajyotsava.
The state capital will be officially known as Bengaluru. With this, Bangalore joins other state capitals like Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and Trivandrum, whose names were changed. Bombay became Mumbai in 1995, Madras became Chennai in 1996, Calcutta-Kolkata in 2001 and Trivandrum- Thiruvananthapuram in 1991. The renaming of cities in the state was mooted by the late Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy in December 2005.
The then chief minister Dharam Singh had agreed and sent a request to the Centre in 2006.
No Change for BU
Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor B Thimme Gowda said there will be no change in the university’s name. “The name change applies only to cities and not to the institution,” he said, adding that the university has not yet received any communication on this from the government. “When names of cities like Madras and Bombay were changed, university names remained the same,” Gowda said.