Proposal to name Mysuru road after Siddaramaiah evokes objections

NT Correspondent

Mysuru: A proposal by the Mysuru City Corporation council to name a stretch of road in the city after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has evoked a series of objections. According to official sources, the proposal calls for naming a stretch of KRS Road from the Lakshmi Venkataramanaswamy temple to the Outer Ring Road junction as 'Siddaramaiah Arogya Marga'.

Based on a suggestion by Chamaraja Congress MLA Harish Gowda, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) took the decision at its meeting on November 22. The matter was first placed before the Mysuru deputy commissioner prior to being tabled in the council meeting. The MCC then issued a newspaper notice inviting views from the public on the proposal within 30 days on December 13, the sources said. Mysuru is the home district of Siddaramaiah, who is serving his second term as the chief minister. The JD(S) called the move to name the KRS Road in the historic city of Mysuru as 'Siddaramaiah Arogya Marga' condemnable.

Pointing out that Siddaramaiah is an accused in the MUDA site allotment case and is facing probe by the Lokayukta police, the opposition party said in a post on 'X': "There is no elected board in the Mysuru City Corporation. The officials appointed by the Congress government have decided to name the road after Siddaramaiah as they are indebted to him." Naming a road after the "corrupt" chief minister, who is involved in the MUDA scam, is a "betrayal and insult" not only to the historic city of Mysuru, but also to the entire state, the JD(S) alleged.

RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna, on whose complaint a case was registered in the alleged MUDA site allotment scam, said the road for which Siddaramaiah's name is proposed is "historic", as Maharaja Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar donated a vast swathe of land and established a tuberculosis hospital there in memory of his sister Princess Krishnajammanni and her children who succumbed to TB.

Speaking to reporters, Krishna said, "The officials have decided to name a road after Siddaramaiah, who is an accused in the MUDA case, despite not having any power to do so. Several citizens have expressed their objections to the proposal. I'm also fighting against it legally. If the proposal is not dropped, we will challenge it in the high court and seek action against the concerned officials." Siddaramaiah is facing allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife Parvathi B M by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

Siddaramaiah, his wife, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju from whom Swamy had purchased a land and gifted it to Parvathi and others have been named in an FIR registered by the Mysuru-located Lokayukta police on September 27, following a special court order.

But Pratap Simha supports naming KRS road stretch after the chief minister!

A day after a section of activists and historians opposed the Mysuru City Corporation's (MCC) proposal to rename a stretch of KRS Road between Lakshminarayana Swamy Circle and Metagalli after CM Siddaramaiah, the proposal surprisingly got support from the BJP's Pratap Simha, a former MP. Speaking to reporters here, he said that there is nothing wrong in naming this stretch after Siddaramaiah as he has immensely contributed to the overall development of Mysuru including improvement of health care infrastructure facilities like construction of Jayadeva Cardiovascular Sciences and Research Centre, New District Hospital, Trauma care centre, Kidwai Institute of Oncology and the Cancer Hospital unit on this stretch by releasing sufficient grants during his tenure.

''As Siddaramaiah is a veteran politician, Mysurean look at him beyond political affiliations. Even though I ideologically and politically oppose Siddaramaiah, I appeal all people, all political parties including BJP and JD(S) not to let this become political as most Mysuru streets are named after achievers like the Wadiyars, Dewans, poets and writers,'' he said. Meanwhile, Mysuru City Corporation has released an advertisement to name this stretch 'Siddaramaiah Arogya Rasthe' following the request made by his fans. It also invited objections from the public regarding this.