It is mandatory that 60 per cent of the signage outside shops must be Kannada in the city.
Bangalore, April 12, 2018: There are several shops in the city that have failed to follow the rule which states that 60 per cent of the board signage outside their shops must be in Kannada.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner, N Manjunatha Prasad tweeted, “It is mandatory for all shops to have 60 per cent of their name boards in Kannada.”
Jaber Kounain, store manager at Western Time Zone, said that he is not even aware of this new rule. “I don’t agree with this rule, we have 20 per cent Kannada in our board signage, BBMP cannot force us to get the boards changed.”
Aveek Rajnath, store manager at an Adidas outlet, said that they are aware of this rule but they have not taken it so seriously.
“Till now there’s no action taken by BBMP, but recently we opened a new branch of Adidas where the board signage had only English language, people from Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) came and asked us to get the board name changed immediately” added Aveek.
Srinath E K, store manager of Decorative Home, said, they were not aware of this new rule. But, they will get change their signage, he said.
“It is better to get the board name changed rather than fighting with the BBMP people. As of now, no one from the BBMP has come, so we continue with the same board,” added Srinath.
Last year in November 2017, BBMP made it mandatory for the shops to have at least 60 per cent space for Kannada in their name boards. It also stated that shopkeepers who fail to follow this will lose their license. A one month deadline was also given by the BBMP, yet a lot of shops have failed to follow this rule.
Recently, there was an article which stated that, a lot of shopkeepers in the city are unsuccessful to stick to the BBMP rule to have 60 per cent Kannada in their name boards compulsorily. The BBMP has said that it is going to take strict actions against these shops.
Rudresh Adrangi, Professor of Kannada at Government Arts College has said that this decision is going to help foster the feelings of love for the Kannada culture and language. He also thinks that it is upto the people alone to bear the cost of installing Kannada sign boards across the city.
“The feeling should come from the people only,” said Professor Adrangi.
