Poets honoured in Davanagere colony

DAVANGARE: Swami Vivekananda Badavane, the 39th ward of Davanagere City Municipal Corporation (CMC), is home to many poets. They're immortalized with roads and streets named after them.
The layout, formed in 1991 on the outskirts of the city, has 350 houses. Its residents work in the departments of education, health, power, posts and telegraph. Retired principal Prof G V Sayagavi, the founder-president of Nagarika Hitha Rakshana Samithi (residents' welfare association), mooted the idea of naming the roads after Kannada poets and writers.Over 38 roads, including eight mains, were chosen in 2005.
Now, you can see roads named after B M Srikantaiah, Pu Thi Narasimhachar, Tha Ra Su, K S Narasimha Swamy, Bee Chi, D V Gundappa, Siddhaiah Puranic Math, Patil Puttappa, Chidananda Murthy, Channaveera Kanavi, etc. Main roads have been named after Jnanpith laureates Shivarama Karanth, Kuvempu, Girish Karnad and U R Ananthamurthy.
On the importance of paying tribute to literary giants, Sayagavi said: "The younger generation is not much aware of Kannada poets and writers of Karnataka. Having writers/ poets immortalized through names of roads would make parents tell their children about their contribution."
The names haven't helped in civic amenities though -- the layout is bereft of amenities like streetlights and footpaths. Samithi secretary K G Basavarajappa said the corporation has not bothered to maintain the parks.
Samithi president K C Channappa urged the government to develop two large parks in the area as per the master plan. "We want to make this layout a model one in Davanagere with playgrounds, parks, temple, and other civic amenities," said treasurer K Gurushanthappa.