TNN

Bangalore, Oct 9: It’s not just Bengalooru. Seven cities of Karnataka will be officially renamed after a gazette notification on November 1.

The Kannada and culture department has identified seven cities in the state as having “Anglicised’’ names and suggested new names for them. Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Shimoga, Belgaum and Hospet will become Bengalooru, Mysooru, Mangalooru, Hubballi, Shivamogga, Belagaavi and Hosapete.

 “This is the list we’ve drawn up. We’ve left out names like Gulbarga, because those are not Anglicised. This list will be put up before the state cabinet and pending any additions that the ministers think of, these seven cities will be renamed on November 1,’’ Kannada and culture secretary I M Vittal Murthy told The Times of India.

The English spellings still have to be finalised, with the department seeking linguistic opinion on whether it should be Bengal-u-ru or Bengal-oo-ru. The department is inclined to follow the stand taken by Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy that it should be Bengal-oo-ru, to account for the elongated syllable in Kannada.

As of now, the decision has been taken by the high power committee on Suvarna Karnataka state Golden Jubilee celebrations. The next process is for the state cabinet to clear the renaming formally after which the gazette notification will be issued prior to November 1. The state is of the opinion that the Union home ministry, which finally clears renaming of cities, will not raise any objections to the Karnataka move. “It is the state’s prerogative to rename its cities, there won’t be any objection,’’ Murthy stated.

The department, however, has decided to leave out renaming of places like Rippenpet and Dobbspet, on the grounds that these places have no other original name. During the regime of Kengal Hanumanthaiah, the state had renamed Closepet as Ramanagaram and French Rocks as Pandavapura.

Anthem Standardised

The state cabinet is set to clear the recommendation of the G S Shivarudrappa Committee that standardised the state anthem. The duration of the song — Kuvempu’s Jai Bharata Jananiya Tanujaathe — is 2 minutes 40 seconds, sung in the tune set by composer Mysore Ananthaswamy.

The length of the 44-line song has been brought down to 16, and all the controversial stanzas have been left out. This decision has been taken following objections raised by Kuvempu’s son, eminent writer K P Poornachandra Tejaswi, to “corrections’’ suggested in the original song.