The State Cabinet’s decision to rename Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South has triggered a political tussle, with Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy terming it as a mere ploy to “inflate the prices of land parcels” of a politician and declaring that the renaming would be undone.

On their part, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar strongly defended the decision. Speaking to mediapersons, the Chief Minister said that public opinion favoured renaming Ramanagara as Bengaluru South district and that the State government had the authority to rename the district.

When his attention was drawn to the criticism by Mr. Kumaraswamy that renaming Ramanagara district would distort history, Mr. Siddaramaiah wondered whether the Union Minister had considered the same when Ramanagara district was carved out.

A conspiracy

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Mr. Kumaraswamy launched a scathing attack on the Congress government for removing the historical name Ramanagara for the district.

He alleged that the renaming was part of a conspiracy by the Deputy Chief Minister to inflate land prices and maintained that the hidden agenda was clear.

“Are they going to be in power forever? What they’ve done now will be reversed. After all, this man (Mr. Shivakumar) is a real estate businessman. He knows how to play tricks to increase his land value. Didn’t Ramanagara district already bring value to farmers’ land?” Mr. Kumaraswamy wondered.

“They could’ve opposed it in 2007 when I made the decision to carve out the Ramanagara district. They didn’t. Ramanagara has given the State three Chief Ministers. The first Chief Minister from the district, Kengal Hanumanthaiya, built the magnificent Vidhana Soudha that the world is in awe of. He challenged Nehru politically. They could’ve named the district after such a great leader. But using Kengal’s name wouldn’t raise their land value, right?” Mr. Kumaraswamy said.

‘Our dream’

When asked by reporters about the allegation that the renaming was done for real estate gains, Mr. Shivakumar said, “Yes, we want the values of our farmers’ land to go up. We want our people to get more jobs. We want investors to come and develop this place. That is our dream.”

He said, “We are from Bengaluru district. Names of places have significance. Why was Madras changed to Chennai, and Gulbarga to Kalaburagi? The people of the district also have their aspirations. Is it bothering anyone?”

He said. “The parliamentary constituency was earlier called Kanakapura. Why was it changed to Bengaluru Rural? We are not changing the name of Ramanagara; it will continue to be the district headquarters. We are only changing the name of the district.”

Notification issued on renaming Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South

Ramanagara district has now officially become Bengaluru South with the Karnataka government on Friday issuing a notification in this regard.

The notification said that “as per the provisions of Section 4 (4A) of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, Ramanagara district is renamed as Bengaluru South district of Karnataka State”. It declared Ramanagara as the district headquarters of the Bengaluru South district.

The State Cabinet on Thursday decided to rename Ramangara district.

A couple of months ago, the Centre had rejected the State government’s proposal to rename Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South. However, the State government has maintained that there is no necessity of the Centre’s approval of renaming the district.

The district was carved out in August 2007 when Union Minister for Industries and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy was the Chief Minister of the JD(S)-BJP coalition government.