Facing flak, BSY clarifies on renaming villages

Two days after announcing that villages will be named after industries and corporate houses that donate Rs 10 crore or more toward flood relief, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa took a u-turn on Friday on facing flak.

Donate to get village named after you: CM to Industry

In a statement, the Chief Minister’s Office clarified that only new layouts that will be developed in the villages will be named after the donors, and not the entire village.

But on Wednesday, Yediyurappa, while appealing for their help toward flood relief, told industry leaders that villages will be named after them if they donated Rs 10 crore or more toward rebuilding them.

Friday’s clarification came after Yediyurappa was criticized from various quarters for seeking to name villages after industries. Critics argued that every village name carried cultural and historical significance.

The Opposition JD(S) had termed it a ‘Tughlaq’ decision. “The name of every village in our state has its own background. Villagers, who have already lost much in their floods, shouldn’t lose the name of their village, too. Don’t keep Karnataka on sale,” the regional party had tweeted.

Karnataka is facing one of its worst floods, which has claimed 62 lives so far and more than 6.97 lakh people have been displaced with 71,234 houses being rendered unfit for residence. The floods have affected 103 taluks across 22 districts.