BENGALURU: After the Union Government rejected its proposal to rename Ramanagara as Bengaluru South, the State Cabinet plans to take it up again on Thursday. This time around, the government is citing court judgments and rules under which it can go ahead with the proposal.
In July 2024, the Cabinet approved renaming Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South, and the state government submitted the request to the Union government for approval. In March this year, Revenue Minister Krisha Byre Gowda had stated that though they had sent the proposal to the Union government after the cabinet decision, the response was not positive.
The state government has included this in the agenda for Thursday’s cabinet meeting. Revenue department sources said a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1953 states that for changing the names of villages, towns or cities, and even railway stations, the State government has to submit a proposal to the MHA, which can issue a no-objection certificate to the State government to issue a gazette notification.
However, official sources said changing names of cities, villages and districts comes under the state government’s domain. A senior official said in 2018, the Uttar Pradesh government renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj, and court too favoured the State government, citing it a state subject. “We are legally equipped and once the cabinet approves, a notification will be issued to rename Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South district, with Ramanagara taluk as the district headquarters,” the official said.
In 2014, the then State government had issued a special gazette notification when it changed the names of 11 districts, including Bangalore to Bengaluru, Mysore to Mysuru, Belgaum to Belagavi, and others. DCM DK Shivakumar is keen on renaming Ramanagara district, which was carved out of Bangalore Rural district in 2007, when Union minister HD Kumaraswamy was CM.
Ramanagara is part of Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency, from where Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh had contested unsuccessfully against BJP’s Dr CN Manjunath, who is also Kumaraswamy’s brother-in-law.
At present, there is Bengaluru South Lok Sabha and Bengaluru South Assembly constituencies. A district with the same name may lead to confusion, though a section of people is hopeful that a Bengaluru prefix will boost real estate in Ramanagara.