Kannada boards: erring business establishments may face trouble

Kannada boards: erring business establishments may face trouble

Special Correspondent

BBMP promises to recommend cancellation of licence

No one can violate KDA rules: Siddalingaiah

30 more Kannada learning centres planned in State

Bangalore: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has promised the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) that it will recommend the cancellation of licence of those business establishments, including multinational companies, that have not put up signboards in Kannada.

This was stated by the chairman of KDA Siddalingaiah at the inauguration of the Kannada Jagriti Samavesha organised by the Federation of Kannada Organisations of the Karnataka Industrial and Commercial units here on Tuesday.

Prof. Siddalingaiah said the BBMP had told the KDA that no establishment, irrespective of its business stature and political clout, would be spared from displaying signboards in Kannada on a par with English, both in content and magnitude.

The BBMP had already issued a circular to that effect. It would issue another notice with a warning and a deadline.

Neither the BBMP nor the establishments concerned could afford to violate the KDA rules and overlook the political influence of the increasing Kannada consciousness, Prof. Siddalingaiah asserted.

Referring to the “sorry state of Kannada” in public life, he called upon Kannadigas not to respond to any queries made in other languages such as Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam.

There were many who had been living in the State for decades, but were yet to learn Kannada.

To help such persons and promote Kannada, the KDA would start 30 more Kannada learning centres in select cities across the State.

Non-Kannada speakers and Kannada organisations should join hands with the KDA in its endeavour to propagate and promote Kannada, Prof. Siddalingaiah said.

President of the Akhila Bharata Sharana Sahitya Parishat Go. Ru. Chennabasappa said it was time Kannada organisations went ahead with the long pending political experiment for the development of Kannada.

“In the light of the indifferent attitude of major political parties for the cause of Kannada all these years, Kannada organisations should extend their support only to those candidates or parties that give a commitment for the development of Kannada, in the coming elections,” he suggested.

Although the development of Kannada and the related issues had been viewed as apolitical since five decades, pressing them with “fervour and vigour” had now become a political reality.

It had been proved that a majority of politicians ignored the basic interests of the State, he said.

Writer L.S. Seshagiri Rao, who chaired the recently concluded 74th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelan in Udupi, was felicitated on the occasion.

President of the federation and former MLA K. Prabhakara Reddy presided over the Jagriti Samavesha.