In the name of the citys founder

BANGALORE: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda became the latest voice in support to name the Bangalore International Airport (BIA) after the city’s founder Kempe Gowda. Speaking after inaugurating an event related to the 500th year Kempe Gowda Jayanthi celebrations, he said that there should be no further delays in adhereing to this request.Urging the union government to facilitate the change, he said that any delay in the process would not only mean disrespect to the sixteenth century ruler, but all the people from this land. He said that many people from the Kempe Gowda Committee had met him earlier and he had also adhered to their request and lent his support to the movement. He said that it is painful to see that there was still no progress on the issue.“There are not enough people coming forward to support this cause”, he stated and added, “More people should join this noble cause”. He added that such ‘togetherness’ would go down in history as well. Inferring his term as the Chief Minister, Gowda said that he was invited by many pro-Kempe Gowda organisations for many events. “I asked all of them to come together and only then I would accept the invitation,” Gowda said, and added that he was happy to see that all of them had actually come together for the celebration of the founder of the city. Even in the past, many leaders had urged the union government to name BIA after Kempe Gowda. The state government has time and again said that the decision to name the airport was unanimously approved by the state cabinet and sent to the center as the approval had to come from there.