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Bengaluru: Vandalism in pro-Kannada protest; English signboards torn down
The public awareness protest was held under the leadership of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike State President T A Narayan Gowda.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), a pro-Kannada body, on Wednesday held a massive protest in Bengaluru demanding that all businesses in Karnataka should have signboards and nameplates written in the native language. It launched a protest today demanding that all businesses fulfil the government's 60 percent Kannada nameplates obligation. The "public awareness protest", organised under the leadership of KRV state president TA Narayan Gowda, reportedly turned violent as some activists vandalised signboards written in English.
Members of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike broke flower pots outside the Mall of Asia in Bengaluru. They also broke signboards written in English and sprayed black ink on some of them.
Gowda today said people from other states who want to run their business in Karnataka will have to remove English signboards.
"People from various states are doing business in Bangalore. But they don't put Kannada nameplates on their shops. They are only putting up the nameplates of their shops in English. If they want to stay back in Bangalore then they have to put nameplates on their shops in Kannada or else they have to move from Karnataka to other states," Gowda said.
He said per the Karnataka government's law, 60 percent of the nameplates should have Kannada text on them.
"No one is following it properly, so today we are doing a massive awareness protest rally. If the police stop us today, our struggle will not stop. We will continue the rally every day till our demands are met," he added.
He said the Mall of Asia in Bengaluru will have to put up Kannada signboards.
"We told them to put a Kannada nameplate but Mall of Asia (Bangalore) did not bother and has not put a Kannada nameplate so we will fight against this. Today police are providing full protection to the Mall of Asia (Bengaluru), but tomorrow who will provide protection? Tomorrow again our activists will protest, till our demand is fulfilled," he added.
Recently, Tushar Giri Nath, chief commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), said all commercial stores will have to install 60 percent of nameplates and signboards in Kannada. Those failing to do so will attract legal action starting February 28.
"There are 1400 km of arterial and sub-arterial roads in the city, and all the commercial shops on these roads will be surveyed zone-wise. After the survey, a notice will be given to the shops that do not use 60% Kannada language. After issuing the notice, they will be given time till February 28 to implement Kannada language nameplates and submit compliance to the respective zone commissioners," Tushar Giri Nath said.
With inputs from ANI
