The Karnataka government has taken another step to reassert its hold over Belgaum. CM Siddaramaiah has announced that Belgaum will be officially renamed Belagavi on November 1, when the state celebrates Rajyotsava to mark its formation.
But it remains to be seen if the state government can clear the official hurdles it may encounter in renaming the city , which has been the bone of contention between Karnataka and Maharashtra for four decades.The CM made the announcement following demands by Kannada organizations and litterateurs at a meeting in Bangalore to discuss the stand to be taken on the petition filed by Maharashtra in the Supreme Court seeking the inclusion of 814 Belgaum villages.
The renaming of Belgaum was triggered when the late U R Ananthamurthy , at a meeting to discuss celebration of Karnataka's golden jubilee in 2005, suggested to the then CM N Dharam Singh that Bangalore be renamed Bengaluru.
Singh agreed and this led to a slew of demands to rename other places and the list grew to 12 cities. UPA-1 cleared the names with a rider that Belgaum be dropped so as to not antagonize Maharashtra.
But it remains to be seen if the state government can clear the official hurdles it may encounter in renaming the city , which has been the bone of contention between Karnataka and Maharashtra for four decades.The CM made the announcement following demands by Kannada organizations and litterateurs at a meeting in Bangalore to discuss the stand to be taken on the petition filed by Maharashtra in the Supreme Court seeking the inclusion of 814 Belgaum villages.
The renaming of Belgaum was triggered when the late U R Ananthamurthy , at a meeting to discuss celebration of Karnataka's golden jubilee in 2005, suggested to the then CM N Dharam Singh that Bangalore be renamed Bengaluru.
Singh agreed and this led to a slew of demands to rename other places and the list grew to 12 cities. UPA-1 cleared the names with a rider that Belgaum be dropped so as to not antagonize Maharashtra.
No comments:
Post a Comment