After row, Karnataka CM goes back on renaming villages after corporates

Apparently faced with criticism from a section of villagers and political class, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Friday (August 16) dropped the offer to rename flood-hit villages after donors who contribute more than ₹10 crore for relief works.

The offer has now been modified, and the Chief Minister said donors contributing for the development of the flood-affected villages will have the new layouts named after them and not the villages.

Taking to Twitter, the Karnataka Chief Minister’s Office stated, “Clarification: Chief Minister had announced that donors contributing more than ₹10 crore will have the layouts named after them, not the villages.”

Yediyurappa’s announcement on Wednesday (August 14) at a meeting with industrialists and corporates in the wake of last fortnight’s rain fury that left 62 people dead, that villages would be renamed after companies if they give more than ₹10 crore had drawn criticism from some villagers and the JDS.

The contention of those villagers and some JD(S) leaders is that changing village name is nothing short of losing one’s identity.

The JD(S), headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, had termed the move ‘Tughlaq’ like. “Please don’t make people who have lost everything in the floods to lose the name of their village,” the party had said. “Do not put Karnataka up for sale.”