BENGALURU: Bringing into play cultural aspirations and sentiments of local people as well as the primacy for Kannada, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday backed the cause of anti-Hindi activists with an official request to the Union government to redesign boards at Metro stations by doing away with the three-language formula.
Mr Siddaramaiah, who also pointed at growing unrest with some activists blackening boards and signages at Metro stations, said in his letter to Union minister for urban affairs, Narendra Singh Tomar, “Ever since the opening of the entire network, there have been widespread protests against the use of Hindi in the name boards and signages in Metro stations. It is not essential to use Hindi in signages as commuters who use Metro are comfortable with reading and understanding Kannada or English.”
He explained to Mr Tomar that though both Union and state governments have equal (50:50) stake in BMRCL, the financial contribution of the state was much more than that of the Union government. Moreover, supervision of operations, provision of security, etc, to BMRCL was the state's responsibility. Besides, the state has undertaken to repay all loans of BMRCL and also bear the operating losses, and hence it would be appropriate that the policies of the state are implemented in the project, he added.
