New Delhi/Bangalore,: The Centre on Friday gave its nod for renaming 12 cities and towns of Karnataka, eight years after the State government proposed it.

With this, Bangalore is set to become Bengaluru and Belgaum, Belagavi.

The official clearance came as the Union Home Ministry overruled Maharashtra’s objection to renaming Belgaum, over which the two states are locked in a dispute.

The final decision comes days after the Maharashtra Assembly polls. Home Minister Rajnath Singh approved the changes after the Survey of India, Ministry of Railways, Department of Posts, Ministry of Science and Technology and the Intelligence Bureau gave their “no objection.”

The Home Ministry has asked the State government to issue required gazette notification spelling the name in Devanagari (Hindi), Roman (English) script and the regional language.

The official notification should be sent to the Office of the Surveyor General of India, Karnataka Geo-Spatial Data Centre, Ministry of Communication and IT, and the Railways.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah welcomed the Centre’s decision and said it was a gift to the people of the state on the occasion of Rajyotsava.

The gazette notification will be issued as soon as we receive communication in this regard from the Union government, the chief minister added.

Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee told Deccan Herald the file pertaining to the changes is yet to reach the state government. “We are expecting the files anytime soon. It has been a long pending case, and subsequent to receiving the files we will issue the notification,” said Mukherjee.

In all probability, the state government may issue the notification before November 1, Mukherjee added.

The chief secretary said that more than the border dispute, the changes are based on the usage of names of these towns by the local people.

The Home Ministry had received the proposal for renaming on October 27, 2006, from the then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, following demands from litterateurs led by the late U R Ananthamurthy.

BJP vice-president B S Yeddyurappa had also lobbied for the proposal during his tenure as chief minister. The state government proposed this move as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the formation of the state on November 1, 2006.
The proposal, however, did not move forward as the Congress-led UPA government did not want to ruffle feathers in Maharashtra.