Under pressure from the State government and Kannada activists, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) on Friday started the process of removing Hindi from signage on metro stations. Images of a signage at Chickpet station taken down were shared on social media.
According to sources, signage in at least three stations, Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Interchange, J.P. Nagar and Chickpet stations, were removed on Friday. The process is expected to continue over the next few days to cover the entire Phase I network.
In the past few days, BMRCL was under tremendous pressure to remove Hindi from signage in metro stations. With a large section of the population accusing the Union government of imposing Hindi on Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked the Centre to adopt a persuasive instead of a mandatory approach on usage of Hindi. When the Kannada Development Authority issued clear instructions to remove Hindi from signage, BMRCL replied that this could be done only after consultation with the State government.
Towards the end of July, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Narendra Singh Tomar that the State government would ask BMRCL to remove Hindi signage, with a rider that the removal would be ‘temporary’. BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola could not be reached for comment despite several attempts.
