Days after the Union Home Ministry cleared the proposal made by state nearly a decade ago, 12 of Karnataka's towns will be officially known with their Kannada names. From now on, Bangalore will officially be known as Bengaluru and Mysore as Mysuru.

The decision came on the 69th anniversary of the formation of the state of Karnataka. The decision was hailed by many noted personalities of Karnataka.

Popular cultural personalities like late UR Ananthamurthy and Kannada theatre giant Girish Karnad were amongst the proponents of reverting to the popular Kannada names of the cities. Their contention was that locals referred to these cities with their Kannada names only.

Apart from Bangalore and Mysore, Mangalore will be known as Mangaluru, Belgaum as Belagavi, Gulbarga as Kalaburagi, Hubli as Hubballi, Shimago as Shivamogga, Chickmagalur as Chikkamagaluru, Bellary as Ballari, Bijapur as Vijapura, Hospet as Hosapete and Tumkur as Tumakuru.

The Karnataka government had mooted the proposal in 2006.