Hyderabad-Karnataka renamed as Kalyana Karnataka

The Karnataka Cabinet on Friday decided to rename the Hyderabad-Karnataka region as Kalyana Karnataka.

“The change in name will happen in all government records where the term Hyderabad-Karnataka will be replaced with Kalyana Karnataka,” Law Minister J C Madhuswamy said, briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

The Hyderabad-Karnataka region, which enjoys special status under the Constitution (Article 371J) owing to its backwardness, comprises Bidar, Ballari, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Raichur and Yadgir.

Uplift of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region is done through the Hyderabad-Karnataka Region Development Board (HKRDB), which will now be called Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board.

That the region should be renamed as Kalyana Karnataka was a long-pending demand. Prior to independence, the region was under the Nizams who ruled Hyderabad.

Post-independence, the region continued to be called Hyderabad-Karnataka and there were calls to do away with the reference to the Nizams.

“While India got independence on August 15, our region got it one year, one month later (September 1948). We celebrate our independence on September 17. We’re happy that the region was renamed before our independence day,” Sedam BJP legislator Rajkumar Patil said.

“There are 41 legislators from the region and all of us had petitioned the government to formally rename the region.”

The Cabinet also authorised Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to constitute a new committee to review the progress in development of the Kalyana Karnataka region. “The existing committee’s term has expired,” Madhuswamy said.

There are also calls to rename Mumbai-Karnataka as Kittur Karnataka.

In December 2018, the then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy wrote to the Union Civil Aviation Ministry seeking naming the Belagavi airport after early 19th century queen Kittur Rani Chennamma and the Hubballi airport after Chennamma’s army chief Sangolli Rayanna.