Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Aug 30: The fact finding committee headed by additional deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district, Kumar, which has been formed to look into the demands made by various parties relating to renaming of Light House Hill Road, met at the office of the deputy commissioner of Dakshana Kannada district on Tuesday August 29. It may be recalled that after the city corporation put through processes to rename this road as Mulky Sunder Ram Shetty Road in honour of the former chairman of Vijaya Bank, and it was approved by the ministry of urban development, objections had been received and different parties had staked their claims seeking to rename this road as St Aloysius College Road, Bavutagudda Road, and Idgah Road. The decision was put on hold at the behest of MLA, J R Lobo.

At its meeting, the committee collected supplementary documents from four parties who have been insisting that this road should be named as per their demands.

Representatives of Vijaya Bank Officers Organization said that they had obtained legal sanction for renaming this road after former chairman of their bank and that MLA, J R Lobo, had written to the government and secured a stay against the process of renaming the road. They noted that even the city corporation had approved the proposal to rename Light House HIll Road as Sunder Ram Shetty Road. Karunakar Shetty, Seethacharan Shetty, Raghuram Suvarna and Rajgopal Rai, who appeared on behalf of the organization, claimed to be in possession of all records to prove their claim and reiterated their demand to christen the said road as Sunder Ram Shetty Road.

Registrar of St Aloysius College, Prof A M Narahari, placing facts on behalf of his college, said that during the period the city was administered by municipality in 1976, a decision to name this road as St Aloysius Road had been taken during the period when late Blasius M D'Souza was its president. He said that this also finds a mention in the annual magazine of the college for 1976-77. As per the decision of the municipality, name boards had been installed near Higginbothams book store, library, and by the side of the road which turns towards St Aloysius College. He said that during the process of the municipality turning into city municipality and then city corporation, the resolutions passed by them earlier have gone missing. College principal, Dr Praveen Martis, was among the delegation of the college comprising several people.

Ashraf, president Union of Muslim Organizations, explaining about his demand to rename this road as Idgah Road, said that the Idgah mosque had been built at Light House Hill in 1798 and therefore it should be rightfully renamed as Idgah Road.

Leaders of 'Amar Sullia' organization said that this spot has special significance relating to freedom struggle in the region and that tricolour had been hoisted here during that period. They insisted that it would be apt to retain the name of the road as 'Bavutagutta Road' to keep memories of freedom struggle alive.

Fact finding commitee members, city corporation commissioner, Muhammed Nazeer, and head of Mangalore University's history department, Dr Udayakumar, were present. Speaking later, Kumar said that all the documents will be checked and historic facts will be scrutinized. He said that after this, the deputy commissioner will hand over the report containing the facts to the district in-charge minister and that a final decision will be taken by the minister.