After much hue and cry, the state government will rename the 105-year-old government primary school at Gavipuram in Guttahalli.
The school, which has also been a part of veteran actor Rajinikanth’s initial schooling days in Bengaluru, was built in 1913. Tukku Bai Bhojagade built the school in memory of her husband, who was a silver merchant and wanted to serve the less-privileged children in the city.
A free-hostel on Bull Temple Road was also built for students coming from other cities.
Late Prof N A Nikam, the former vice-chancellor of Mysore University and also the grandson-in-law of Tukku Bai, donated the school premises to the education department.
The school with such historical importance was in a bad state and the government decided to renovate it during the last decade. The renovation work was stuck for some time during 2014 and was completed in 2017.
According to sources close to Bhojagade family, the government had named the school as Government Kannada Model Primary School. However, when the family requested to rename the school and honour the donors, the government is said to have demanded close to Rs 15 lakh from the family.
It was only after the family members explained how their ancestors donated the place to the government, which is worth of crore of rupees in the present market price and that they did not receive anything in return, that the government agreed to rename the school.
The school will now be named as Smt Tukku Bai Bhojagade and Smt Manna Bai Nikam Government Primary School.
The renaming ceremony will be held on December 5, and Prema Krishna, the wife of former chief minister S M Krishna, Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya, P C Jaffer, commissioner, public education department, and H A Kempegowda, corporator of Hanumanthanagar, will be present.