DCM Shivakumar and CM Siddaramaiah

BENGALURU: Karnataka govt late Friday night notified the renaming of Ramanagara district ‘Bengaluru South’ district. The notification issued by the revenue department has made the changes under the Karnataka Land Revenue act of 1964. In Kannada and Hindi, the district will be called ‘Bengaluru Dakshina’ and ‘Bengaluru Dakshin’, respectively. The notification says the district HQ will continue to be in Ramanagara town. “We want development, foreign investment in our district, and jobs for our people,” said DCM Shivakumar. who led the name-change move. Amid biting criticism from HD Kumaraswamy, Union minister for steel and heavy industries, chief minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar Friday defended the decision to rename Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South Kumaraswamy Friday lashed out, saying the decision to change the name is “only a ploy” to secure real estate gains. “Ramanagara has produced three chief ministers,” he said. “Kengal Hanumathaiah built the magnificent Vidhana Soudha that the world is in awe of. They could have named the district after such a great leader. Had they done that, I would have appreciated it. But using Kengal’s name wouldn’t raise land value, right?” He claimed the re-naming was a “conspiracy” by Shivakumar and what “they” do will be “undone.” “Is this govt going to last forever? What they do now will be reversed. After all, this man (Shivakumar) is a real estate businessman. He knows how to play tricks to increase the value of his land. Didn’t Ramanagara district already bring value to farmers’ land?” Kumaraswamy asked.‘Move to ensure development’Responding to this, Shivakumar reiterated that the decision was taken to develop Bengaluru. “I admit that this decision was taken to ensure that property values of our farmers and villagers go up,” said Shivakumar. “We want development, we want foreign investment in our district, and we want to ensure jobs for our people.”However, Shivakumar said there is no plan to rename Ramanagara city: “Ramanagara will continue to remain the district headquarters. We are only going to rename the district as Bengaluru South.”In Mysuru, Siddaramaiah also defended the decision, pointing out the govt has the power to rename districts. “We took into account opinions of people, which was overwhelmingly in favour of renaming it Bengaluru South district,” Siddaramaiah said.