BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, along with other Congress leaders, on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, proposing to rename Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South district.
Speaking to reporters, Shivakumar said that a delegation of Ramanagara district MLAs and himself submitted the proposal to the CM on Tuesday. He said this initiative was taken, considering the development and future prospects of Ramanagara, Channapatna, Magadi, Kanakapura, and Harohalli taluks.
Shivakumar said the people of Doddaballapur, Devanahalli, Hoskote, Kanakapura, Ramanagara, Channapatna, and Magadi were all Bengalureans originally. “Ramanagara and Bengaluru Rural districts were carved out of Bengaluru Urban for administrative convenience,” he said, adding that Ramanagara needs to be renamed keeping Ramanagara (taluk) as the district headquarters. “We have submitted a proposal regarding this,” he added.
Explaining, the DCM said the renaming exercise would encourage industries to look at the district and the land valuation would go up as well. “Bengaluru has scope to grow only towards Ramanagara and Tumakuru, as it has Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh on its other sides,’’ he said. When asked which taluks would come under the Bengaluru South district, he said it was only a renaming exercise and there won’t be any change in the geographical boundaries of the district.
The memorandum was signed by Shivakumar, along with district in-charge minister Ramalinga Reddy, former Bangalore Rural LS Constituency MP DK Suresh, and others.
Responding to the request of renaming Ramanagara, Siddaramaiah told reporters that they have only received the proposal at the moment. “The proposal will be kept before the cabinet and discussed,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shivakumar’s idea of renaming Ramanagara to Bengaluru South was widely opposed by the BJP and JDS. It can be noted that when Union minister HD Kumaraswamy was the CM, the Ramanagara district was carved out of Bengaluru Rural in 2007. Both Shivakumar and Kumaraswamy, Vokkaliga leaders from this region, are eying to have a hold over this place. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, Shivakumar’s brother Suresh lost the Bangalore Rural LS constituency to Kumaraswamy’s brother-in-law Dr CN Manjunath, and Ramanagara was part of that constituency.
