The mayor has moved a proposal to name 10 th Main Road in Rajajinagar, next to Ramamandira, as ‘Swatantra Horatagara Sri Gopal Raste’. | Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain more-in Twenty-one years after she first mooted renaming a road in Rajajinagar after her freedom fighter father, Mayor G. Padmavathi seems to be making headway. Following a resolution passed by the council in November 2016, the civic body has called for objections from the public to naming 10th Main Road, Rajajinagar, next to Ramamandira, after freedom fighter Gopal. The road is set to be renamed ‘Swatantra Horatagara Sri Gopal Raste’. Citizens can file objections to the renaming within 30 days. Ms. Padmavathi said, “My father died in 2015. While I am proud to be his daughter, he is foremost a freedom fighter and belongs to society.” However, the move has not gone down well with the opposition parties. Padmanabha Reddy, leader of opposition in the BBMP council, said that while they respect a freedom fighter, the move is in bad taste and amounted to misuse of office by the mayor. “Contrary to claims that the resolution was passed in the council, I don’t remember it being discussed. Most of the topics are not even discussed before they are passed. This deserved to be debated,” he said. Gopal, then 22, was working in Binny Mills when the mill was forcefully closed for 14 days during the Quit India Movement in 1942. He was arrested and spent a year-and-a-half in prison. Ms. Padmavathi said that he lost his wife while in prison and later married her mother. Noted freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy said that though he did not know Gopal in person, he recounted the Quit India Movement in the city. “Binny Mills, Minerva Mills and Raja Mills were made to suspend work for 14 days by worker unions as they were producing parachute cloth, which was used for fighter aircraft of the British army during World War II. Several workers were arrested,” he recalled. Mr. Doreswamy said that there is no harm in the mayor trying to name a road after her freedom fighter father. “Nobody else remembers him. That is the sad state of affairs,” he lamented.

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