Lady Hill Circle to be named after Narayana Guru

Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) council passed a resolution on Friday to rename Lady Hill circle after philosopher and social reformer Brahmasri Narayana Guru, who had declared ‘one caste, one religion, one God for humanity’.

Many organisations had been demanding renaming of the Circle after Sri Narayana Guru. Though the proposal was tabled in the council meeting a few months ago, it was referred to Standing Committee for Town Planning for further discussions. Later, the Committee submitted a proposal to rename the Circle after Narayana Guru.

According to the documents available with the MCC, the Circle has not been named officially so far. In August, 2003, Mayor had given approval for renaming the Circle after Brahmasri Narayana Guru in anticipation of an approval from the Council. However, the Council had postponed the decision.

The resolution will be sent to the government for approval. The authorities had received 41 objections against renaming of the Circle.

‘It’s own history’

Objecting to the MCC’s proposal, joint secretary of Lady Hill Educational Institutions had stressed that Lady Hill had its own historical significance. The Apostolic Carmel Sisters landed in Mangaluru to initiate the education mission.

In 1885, when Mother Marie Des Anges first Superior General visited Mangaluru, the locals had appealed to her to start school for girl children. Following the demand, the school was started for educating female children and as a honour, the area was declared as Lady Hill Circle.

The council meeting also resolved to refer the proposal to the standing committee on Town Planning to name
K S Rao Rao-Court-Karangalpady road stretch after Justice K S Hegde, who had served as the speaker of Lok Sabha and Judge in Supreme Court.

Jalasiri works

Corporator Shamshuddin and Standing Committee President Jagadish Shetty alleged that while digging the roads for laying pipelines under Jalasiri project, envisaged to supply 24X7 water supply to citizens, several existing pipelines were damaged. After laying the pipelines, the roads were not repaired causing a lot of inconveniences to the motorists. Mayor directed the engineers to restored roads immediately, before carrying out the works under Jalasiri.

To be cleared

MCC Commissioner Akshy Sridhar said they would remove unauthorised cables of different service providers, that are posing a danger to people, within a week. The corporators said that telecom operators have tied (drawn) their cables to the electricity poles without taking permission from the MCC. On the other hand, the MCC has lost revenue as the service providers have drawn their lines free of charge.

Mayor Diwakar said a meeting to discuss on traffic woes will be held next week. On industries releasing effluents into rivers through a rajakaluve in Baikampady, he directed engineers to submit a report, after inspecting the spot, to Karnataka Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) for further action.