What’s in a name? A lot, if the growing murmurs against the proposed names for the new districts are anything to go by.
While welcoming the State government’s decision to carve out new districts, people are protesting the choice of names. For example, while the announcement to form Tirupati as the headquarters of the new district came as no surprise, the choice of nomenclature as Sri Balaji district did not find wide acceptance.
In fact, the name was proposed way back by N.T. Rama Rao, and the same is in vogue for registration and revenue departments for the lands roughly covered under the Tirupati revenue division. However, a section of the public has raised the demand to retain Tirupati as the district name, instead of ‘Sri Balaji’.
Campaign goes viral
‘Tirupati’ itself is a brand. Don’t change its name,’ goes a post which has become viral in the form of a social media campaign on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.
A group of college students came up with the campaign logo, which was released by Jana Sena constituency in-charge K. Kiran Rayal.
“As residents of Tirupati and Tirumala, we want the name to be retained. People refer to us and our place as Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams and not Sri Balaji Devasthanams,” he observed.
‘Will remove YSR name’
Similarly, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has demanded that the name ‘YSR Kadapa’ be replaced with ‘Kadapa’.
TDP Kadapa district president M. Linga Reddy objected to the government’s reported move to remove the word ‘Kadapa’ and instead name it as ‘YSR District’.
Speaking to the media, he recalled that the district had blessed the YSR family with all posts, right from the panchayat board to the Chief Minister’s seat.
“Having spread its tentacles now, the family is bent on undoing the fame of ‘Kadapa’. Nellore is still known as ‘Sri Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore’ district. There is nobody greater than him in the YSR family,” he fumed.
Pointing out that the Collectorate too mentioned the district name as merely ‘Kadapa’ and not ‘YSR Kadapa’, Mr. Linga Reddy announced that the TDP would drop the name ‘YSR’ upon coming to power.
