Soon after the Karnataka chief minister, Siddaramaiah asked the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited to temporarily redesign the signs at metro stations and remove Hindi names from them, Hindi sign boards outside metro stations in Bengaluru were removed by the authorities today. According to ANI reports, in Karnataka, after protests against the imposition of Hindi in Karnataka, the metro stations have removed them in some places. Sign boards at stations that used three languages: Kannada, English and Hindi, will now have just two.
Karnataka: Hindi signboards removed from metro stations by authorities in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/CHmBEtLXpU
— ANI (@ANI_news) August 4, 2017
In July, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) had decided to take down all Hindi signs at metro stations across Bengaluru, in what can be seen as a victory for pro-Kannada protesters. According to reports, the BMRCL had agreed to the directive issued by Kannada Development Authority (KDA) to remove all Hindi signs from Namma Metro and Metro stations. The decision came after a meeting of the BMRCL and KDA officials.
Karnataka has seen agitation against the use of Hindi on the Bengaluru metro, as recently as last month. Kannada activists had earlier protested by defacing signage outside several stations. On 19, July, they blackened signs at the Yeswanthpur, Nagasandra, Mysore Road and Deepanjali Nagar metro stations. The Chief Minister had also asserted that the Karnataka government was obligated to give priority to the language of the state and that it would be “practical to use those languages which the locals can read and follow”.
