It was the Rulers' Council who had asked for some roads in Kuala Lumpur to be renamed after monarchs, Deputy Federal Territories Minister M Loga Bala said today.

Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby, Loga Bala said that the decision to change some eight major thoroughfares to the names of monarchs was made sometime last year by the ministry.

This was then brought forward to the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL). The cabinet decided on the name change on June 4.

"The Rulers' Council said that there are not enough roads in Kuala Lumpur that is named after monarchs, so they wanted these changes," he said.

Loga Bala said that the new changes would not involve any costs for the ministry or the city hall.

However, Segambut MP Lip Lim Eng, demanded that the government conduct a public referendum before conducting the changes.

"There was no engagement with the people. They should conduct a referendum to gather public opinion," he said.

While not against the idea of naming roads after monarchs, Lim said that the ministry should have done so with new roads, and not existing main roads, such as the long-standing Jalan Duta.

"There are so many new towers and new projects being built in KL," he said.

"The names could be used for the new roads, and not rename old roads. This will cause confusion among the public," he added.