It may take a long time to become Bengaluru

It may take a long time to become Bengaluru
The Times of India

Bangalore: The announcement has been made. But the process of reinventing Bangalore as Bengaluru is cumbersome.
A day after chief minister N Dharam Singh announced the renaming of Bangalore as Bengaluru, the process to officially change the name was set in motion on Monday.

Chief secretary B K Das told The Times of India: “We have to begin the process by preparing a proposal to be sent to the Union home ministry. They have to approve it before the name can be changed, as it will have to be changed on all maps and legal documents.’’

The process for the official change of name is long-winded, as all administrative documents have to be redone. While official letterheads may just be scored out, documents like the comprehensive development plan, for example, will have to be reprinted with the new name.

The state still has to assess the economic implication of this process, with each department having to submit its own requirements. Officials recalled that the process of changing the state’s name from Mysore to Karnataka in 1973 took over a year and expect a similar time lag this time also. As a formality, at the grassroots level, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Council will also pass a resolution on renaming Bangalore.

This, says Mayor Mumtaz Begum, will be done in the monthly meeting of the BMP, slated to be held in the last week of December. “As the CM has already announced this, we will formally place the resolution on record and approve it,’’ says Begum. Once, the BMP Council passes the resolution, it will be forwarded to the Urban Development Department from where the resolution copy reaches the Chief Secretary’s office and the CM’s office thereon.

At the monthly meeting of the BMP, a resolution on renaming the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike to Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, will also be mooted, says Begum.