Renaming spree: Bengaluru Rural district to be called Bengaluru North; and university named after Manmohan Singh

The Cabinet on Wednesday decided to name Bengaluru City University after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who passed away in December 2024. It also decided to rename the border town of Bagepalli as Bhagya Nagar and Bengaluru Rural district as Bengaluru North district. Incidentally, the government’s earlier decision to rename Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South drew sharp reactions from its political rival Janata Dal (Secular).

“The government decided on renaming Bagepalli based on the request of the local legislator. Palli is a Telugu word. In our region (Mysuru), we call a lizard palli,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defended. When his attention was drawn to several villages in Bagepalli taluk having palli in their name and what the government intended to do about them, Mr. Siddaramaiah said, “We will go by what the local legislator says.”

Projects for Chickballapur

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved several projects for Chickballapur. Among them was the second campus of Bengaluru North University at Amaravati village in Sidlaghatta taluk at a cost of ₹123.5 core, an international flower auction centre at a cost of ₹10 crore, construction of a reservoir in Chintamani taluk at a cost of ₹36 crore, and approval for filling water from the Hebbal-Nagawara valley to 164 tanks in Sidlaghatta and Chintamani taluks. Other sanctions are ₹11-crore worth of MRI equipment for Nandi Institute of Medical Sciences, Chickballapur; a Morarji Desai Residential School in Chintamani, renovation of hospitals at Bagepalli and Chickballapur at a cost of ₹36 crore. Of the ₹3,400-crore projects approved on Wednesday, ₹2,050-crore worth of projects are for districts in the Bengaluru Revenue division.

Other decisions

Among other decisions of the Cabinet are approval of 14 residential schools in the State at a cost of ₹306 crore, residential schools for children of construction workers in every district at a cost of ₹1,125 crore, and setting up community health centres in places that do not have primary health centres.

The BJP, meanwhile, has opposed naming Bengaluru City University after Manmohan Singh.

Sub-committee on mining

The Cabinet on Wednesday decided to set up a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Law and Parliamentary Affairs H.K. Patil to study the illegal mining cases handled by the Lokayukta and submit a report within a month, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said. “Mr. Patil also headed an earlier sub-committee on illegal mining, and he had made the recommendation on investigation, recovery and action. This is being done to safeguard the interests of the State and protect natural resources,” he added.

Recently, Mr. Patil wrote a seven-page letter to the Chief Minister expressing displeasure over the handling of mining cases, and pointed out that only 7.6% of the cases had been investigated even as he accused that ₹1.5 lakh crore had been looted.