Siddaramaiah defends move to rename Ramanagara

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar on Friday defended renaming Ramanagara as Bengaluru South district after Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy lashed out at the Congress government in Karnataka, accusing them of doing it to jack up land prices.

The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday approved the renaming of neighbouring Ramanagara district as

‘Bengaluru South’.

Ramanagara, about 50 kms from here, will remain as the headquarters of the renamed district, which will also consist of Magadi, Kanakapura, Channapatna and Harohalli Taluks. Ramanagara, which has now been renamed, is the home district of Shivakumar.

He represents Kanakapura Assembly constituency in the district, and had first mooted the proposal to rename it as Bengaluru South.