Man who greened Bangalore passes away

Lakshman Rau passes away

The Hindu


BANGALORE: N. Lakshman Rau, former Administrator of the then Bangalore City Municipal Corporation and son of late N. Madhav Rau, former Dewan of Mysore, died here on Friday. He was 88 and is survived by his wife, Indira, and three daughters.

Family sources told The Hindu that Mr. Lakshman Rau had more or less maintained good health until the very end. In a way, he was the architect of new Bangalore, which has earned the sobriquet, "Garden City." Mr. Lakshman Rau enjoyed good relations with several Chief Ministers, and he and his brother, the former Chief Secretary N. Narasimha Rau were quite popular both in the Government and the higher echelons of society. Trees were planted along many roads on the advice of Mr. Lakshman Rau to the then Chief Minister, late Ramakrishna Hegde. Mr. Rau was Home Secretary in the Devaraj Urs Government.

Mr. Rau, who developed all the 10 residential blocks of Jayanagar, did not own a house or even a housing site in Bangalore. He died at his daughter's residence near Banaswadi. The two boulevards bisecting Jayanagar (South End Circle onwards) were developed by him. In recent years, the Government sought his services for preserving tanks and lakes in the city, and he prepared a report, "Lakes of Bangalore." The Governor, T.N. Chaturvedi, in a condolence message, said: "Mr. Rau was an able administrator and a man of dynamic action."

The Minister for Water Resources and Transport, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, and the Commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority, M.N. Vidyashankar, have mourned Mr. Rau. The former Chief Secretary to the Government G.V.K. Rao and the former Chairman of the Bangalore Urban Arts Commission M.A. Parthasarathy visited his residence.