Kannada row: Policemen to wear English name tags, but no multilingual call centre for BBMP

Even as the Bengaluru police decided to make it mandatory to wear name badge in Kannada and English, BBMP has revoked its plan to set up a multilingual call centre owing to pressures from various Kannada organizations.

Bengaluru police commissioner NS Megharikh issued an order that policemen will be given name tags in both English and Kannada, much to the relief of non-Kannadiga population in the city.

The decision was taken after the commissioner received a parcel containing a misplaced name tag (written in Kananda), along with a letter explaining that the person who returned it was unable to read the name of the policeman.

Mayor Manjunath Reddy had in June said that BBMP’s grievances cell would have a multilingual call center in languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam apart from English.

Bangalore Mirror reports that the agitators — led by Narayan Gowda, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), and other Kannada organisations — had demanded the withdrawal of the civic agency's decision, that would have come as a respite for people from across the country living in Bengaluru.

Saying that BBMP had in the past quashed the same proposal after opposition from the organization, he said that “there is a political agenda behind the proposal.”

“Now, the mayor says he won't promote other languages, but we have to wait and watch until they totally drop it,” he said.

The proposal would be placed in a meeting to be held later in the month.