BANGALORE: Civic agencies in the city, which will soon be known as Bengaluru, will have to bear the expenses arising from the name change, District-in-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy has said.
The change will affect various organisations like the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) and energy utility BESCOM.
Twelve cities in the state, including Bangalore, will sport a new name from November 1, the Kannada Rajyotsava day, when the state government is expected to make official the changes. The proposal for the changes was sent eight years ago to the Union Home Ministry, which approved it only recently.
An official said the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms will issue an order specifying the time frame for the various departments to change the names.
Experts feel that the new names will have to be used in print as well as in speech to make them popular.
Historian Chidananda Murthy said one will not get used to the new names overnight. “Even today, some of us refer to Mumbai as Bombay and Chennai as Madras. But the present generation uses the new names. Similarly, for Bengaluru, Kalaburagi and the other cities, people will use the new names only over a period of time,” he said.
“The media should promote the new names so that they get registered in the public’s mind. Apart from this, the names should be announced at railway stations and bus stations,” he said.
Jnanpith awardee Chandrashekhara Kambara said, “In places like Belgaum, Gulbarga and Mysore, the local people refer to them as Belagavi, Kalaburagi and Mysuru. Over a period of time, people will start using them fully. There will be a higher impact on the people if there are more name boards with the new names,” he said.
Asked how Kannada movies can help in this regard, film actor-director Dwarakish said actors should use the new names in their upcoming films.
Bruhat Bengaluru Hoteliers Association president Chandrashekar Hebbar told Express he would ask the 1,700 association members to use the new name in boards in their hotels.
Meanwhile, Biocon chairman and MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said she had not objected to the name change in her recent tweets and had only said a lot of money would be spent on this. “Spending money on providing basic amenities should be given priority over changing the city’s name,” she said.